


The Runaway Dungeon Romp

by arizonia1



Series: Runawayguys and friends [2]
Category: Gunstar Heroes, Minecraft (Video Game), Okami (Video Game), Persona 3, Persona 4, Portal (Video Game), Quantum Conundrum, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, TheRunawayGuys, 塊魂 | Katamari Damacy
Genre: Crossover, Gen, Let's Players, Minor Injuries, Minor Violence, Multiple Crossovers, Mythology - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-12-11
Updated: 2014-12-11
Packaged: 2018-03-01 00:15:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 11
Words: 23,248
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2752415
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arizonia1/pseuds/arizonia1
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What should have been a normal PAX for TheRunawayguys and friends turns into a nightmarish fight for survival when faced with the Dark Hour and Tartarus and a mysterious girl whose words can become reality.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prolouge

**Author's Note:**

> For those that have transcended through the internet and see this story on DeviantArt, let it be known that it's the same person that uploaded it. This work is unfinished, and probably never going to see an ending. I'm transferring it here without much reason why.
> 
> I'm not going to be putting many comments down on this as I'm not currently writing it. Please take that into consideration that this was written last year, and what is written here is all that remains of it as the computer with the file had been stolen without any sort of backup.

_Prologue_  
  
A tall thin man is walking towards a convention center to meet up with his friends. He is dressed up for the occasion of this gaming festival. His hair is actually normal, but he is dressed as if he just stepped out of Persona 3. He is looking around graciously, surprised that not a soul recognizes him. He stops to look at the games around him to see if anything of interest sparked his curiosity. All of a sudden though, a voice entered his head.  
  
 _”You cannot make yourself feel something you cannot feel, but you can make yourself do right in spite of your feelings.”_  
  
The man shakes his head. That message was cryptic in all of its words. The guy looks around; he adjusts his glasses and goes on his way towards finding his friends. He eventually finds one, a man of similar attributes, but curly wheat hair compared to the first’s darker shade of ash.  
  
The new man smiles, “Hi there Jake.”  
  
Jake smiles back, “Hi Jon. Nice cosplay. Who are you, if I may ask?”  
  
Jon holds up the fake gun in his hand, “I’m Gunstar Red, from Gunstar Heroes! I’m guessing you came all Persona today.”  
  
Jake chuckles, “Minato Arisato.”  
  
Jon chuckles an ‘of course’ as he leads Jake to another TRG member, as well as their friend Josh. Emile smiles and Josh receives a very painful high-five from Jake. Both of his companions were dressed up for the gaming convention as well.  
  
Jake smiles at both of them, “Nice human-Ammy cosplay Emile. But who are you Josh?”  
  
Josh tips his news-boy hat, “I’m the boy in Quantum Conundrum.”  
  
Jake smiles, “Science. I like. Wait… where’s Tim, and Masae, and Stephen and Mal?”  
  
Emile shrugs and Jon shakes his head. Jake sighs as Josh doesn’t respond with anything of use either. Jake was hoping to see everyone at the convention before he had to leave back for home later that day.  
  
The convention went on; the four also managed to find more of their companions strolling around, looked at the various games, and even sat down and had lunch together as a collective group of friends. Everyone was decked out in various cosplay, or what could be done for the game they played, and joked of how nice it is to see everyone show their true inner gamer.  
  
Masae sighs as she finishes her cheesecake, her Katamari ball rolling around on her head. She compliments the flavor as she licks her lips of the remnants of sweet delight. Emile finishes picking the strawberries from her plate and says the same about his slice of the savory dessert. Jake has been busying himself playing Persona 3 Portable to max out his social links to make the bonus episodes for his YouTube channel. Jon is busy talking to Stephen and Mal about things no one is paying attention to.  
  
Jake sighs as he shuts down his PSP, “Hey guys… does anyone… have any extra room in their hotel room for me to use?”  
  
Everyone stares at Jake in a confused matter at the sudden question. The group looks at the people around them before Stephen says that he could use the extra bed in his room.  
  
Jake smiles, “I should… probably explain why I asked…”  
  
Jon nods, “That would help.”  
  
“Well, I know I live right outside of Seattle and all, well same with Josh… but I feel I’d be more comfortable around my friends tonight. I swear some freaky things have been nagging at me for the last week. It’s hard to explain though.”  
  
Emile sighs, “You might be getting all of my nightmares Jake. I’ve been sleeping fine for the past week, which is very unusual.”  
  
Jake shrugs and sighs before thanking Stephen. Something still doesn’t sit right in Jake’s gut though, it’s nagging at him to stay up until midnight tonight and see why he’s so nervous.


	2. Chapter 1: The Dark Hour

_Chapter 1: The Dark Hour_  
  
Jake tosses and turns in his bed as he struggles to sleep. Something isn’t sitting right with him, and it isn’t that he’s in the same room as a married couple. Jake sits up in bed and puts on his glasses to read the time.  
  
“11:55…” Jake mumbles to himself, “Maybe I’m just thirsty.”  
  
The slender man gets out of his bed and shuffles over to the counter to grab the key card to get back into the room when he returns.  
  
As he descends down the flight of stairs to the closest vending machine Jake notes how something in the night just feels… off. His brown eyes slip closed for a second as he tries to push the thought away that anything is wrong. Jake finally reaches the vending machines and slips in the dollar he brought with him, but before he could hit the button to get his water bottle, he heard a distant clock chime midnight.  
  
The atmosphere suddenly becomes creepier as the lights go out on the vending machines, and even the hallway around him. Jake goes to take a closer look at the liquids inside the machine. The once clear substance is pure red, like blood.  
  
Jake backs away into the wall as he nearly feels sick to his stomach at the grotesque sight. He looks out a nearby glass door and everything outside has a strange green hue and even the moon is green-yellow. Puddles of the same ruby liquid in the bottles dot around the parking lot and even a little bit runs down the glass from the rain outside.  
  
Jake holds his mouth and stomach, “Don’t throw up Jake… don’t do it…!” he mumbles as he drops to his knees, “Your mind is lying to you! This can’t be real, wake up Jake, wake up.”  
  
“WAKE UP JAKE!”  
  
A sudden scream startles Jake from his flailing in the bed. A rouge tint covers his cheeks as Mallory stands over him, holding down his wrists. The woman lets go of him as he calms down.  
  
“Are you okay man? We found you passed out around the vending machines a little after one.” Stephen asks the clearly shaken male.  
  
Jake sits up slowly and tenderly nods his head. Mallory hands him a bottle of water and he greedily drinks from it. As he puts the now empty container down he suddenly decides to ask something of both Stephen and Mal.   
  
“Were either of you… up at midnight?”  
  
Both people standing near him shake their heads. Mallory goes to ask why but does not receive an answer from Jake.  
  
Jake gets up and excuses himself as he goes to get dressed and go downstairs to meet up with his friends for breakfast before going back to the convention center.  
  
When Jake gets there, everyone notices that he’s still a little shaken up from the events that transpired at midnight. Jon watches as the other bespectacled man sits down and slowly eats.  
  
“Were you up around midnight Jake?” Masae asks.  
  
Jake slowly nods his head, “I went to get some water.”  
  
“Did you see that the electricity suddenly shut off and everything turn green and creepy?”  
  
Jake nearly chokes on his juice at Masae’s latter statement. Maybe Jake wasn’t going insane and he really did experience the Dark Hour.  
  
Jake hesitates though, “Um… yeah. And all the water turned red. Like blood.”  
  
Everyone stares at Jake like he was going insane. Emile laughs it off though and just decides to talk about the panel happening at the convention. Jon shrugs it off as well. Josh looks between Masae and Jake as they discuss the strange happening of last night.  
  
Jake finally stands up as Tim, Stephen, and Mal turn up, “I’m leaving. I’ll see you at the panel.”  
  
Everyone looks at each other, confused as to the strange behavior that Jake is displaying. The day continues on to the point of the Thrown Controllers Panel. Jon is cautiously setting up his computer to make sure nothing goes wrong, again. He looks up to see Masae, Stephen, Mal, Greg, Jirard and all those guys, but Jake is still nowhere to be found in the crowd, and with that electric blue hair, he’s hard to miss. Emile taps Jon’s shoulder and asks if he’s all right.  
  
“I’m concerned about Jake. He wasn’t himself this morning.” Jon says matter-of-factly.  
  
“You noticed too? Masae hasn’t talked to me about what she meant either. We’ll ask after the panel.”  
  
Jon nods as Tim and Josh come up to the stage saying everything is set up. Jon nods in response and kicks off the start of the panel.  
  
The panel ends about an hour later, and Jake never showed up. After the little meet-and-greet session the TRG had with their fans Jon gives Jake a call, but no answer. He leaves a message to call him back and that everyone is worried. Jon hangs up his cell phone and follows his little posse to a nearby restaurant.  
  
Josh is scanning the tables to see if he can catch a glimpse of Jake. He almost gives up as they reach their table as he catches sight of cobalt blue. The youngest of the group stops and confirms that Jake is sitting alone at the bar, quietly sipping at something.  
  
“Um. Hey Jake.” Josh quietly says to his friend.  
  
Jake gives a quiet glance to Josh before asking the bartender to send his drinks to the table he’ll be at and getting up. Jake apologizes to both Josh and Jon for not attending the panel before following them to where everyone else is gathered. Emile questions Jake’s lack of attendance, only to get a slight glare from him. Stephen changes the subject and talks about the plan for the next day.  
  
As the time passes, Jon and Masae become increasingly concerned for Jake as he receives another drink from the bar. He doesn’t look like it’s affecting him though, like it’s just an Arnold Palmer tea or something. Josh and Emile have been discussing what had gone on at the panel, and Mallory tries to keep a conversation with Masae going.  
  
Jake all of a sudden slaps down the money to pay for dinner and his drinks before walking out. Emile and Stephen look at each other before following him.  
  
Jake stops walking as he gets close to the hotel doors, “I know you’ve been following me Emile.”  
  
“We’re concerned Jake,” Emile gives a sigh, “You’ve been acting strange.”  
  
“Maybe that Persona game is messing with your head.” Stephen steps in, “Or that alcohol from the restaurant.”  
  
Jake chuckles, “You think I’m drunk? I was drinking tea with lemonade you two.”  
  
Emile becomes confused at the statement and tries to press the subject further about the whole ‘Persona’ deal.  
  
“Guys, I know I sound crazy, but I swear, I think the Dark Hour from Persona 3 is real. I can prove this with three reasons.” Jake sounds more like he’s giving a lecture than trying to explain, “I was alert and awake last night at midnight, Masae saw it as well, and I remember EVERYTHING from it. I don’t dream often, so it HAS to be real.”  
  
Stephen and Emile shrug at him. Jake sighs and tells Emile to stay up tonight and see for himself, and then see who’s going crazy.  
  
Later that night Emile is sitting on the hotel bed playing his 3DS to pass the time. Jon is busy on his computer working on something he refuses to let Emile see, and listening to his music. Emile occasionally glances over at the clock to see what time it is. The seconds pass by as the time nears midnight. The only sounds are Emile’s sound effects from the DS and Jon’s occasional yawns. As impatience starts creeping slowly through Emile’s body, the clock finally chimes midnight.  
  
Emile blinks and suddenly the game system turns off, and at the same time Jon yells in irritation. The Canadian’s computer just shut itself off randomly. Emile becomes curious and tries his phone, just to find it off as well. Jon goes over to the window where a faint green light pools onto the floor. Blue eyes widen as he sees the moon glowing with a similar light to the floor.  
  
The younger joins his friend over by the window, but instead stares at the road four stories below. He sees a figure running in the direction of the convention center. He quickly rushes over to the door and starts pulling on his shoes, Jon following behind, and rushes out the door.  
  
The two get down to the lobby of the hotel and see Masae already there and going out the door. Emile rushes up to her and asks what is going on.  
  
The female shakes her head, “I don’t know. But this is exactly what happened last night.”  
  
The group of three start running to follow the figure they all saw rushing towards the convention center. Jon nearly trips as he looks to the grim heavens and sees a giant tower in the distance.  
  
“I don’t know what the hell that is, but I think that’s where that guy ahead of us is running to.” Jon pants out as he jogs up to his friends.  
  
Masae and Emile both nod in agreement. They are getting closer to the person in front of them and get a glimpse of a Prussian blue color.  
  
All three of them yell in unison, “JAKE!”  
  
Jake stops running and turns around to stare at his followers. He smiles as they catch up to him. He says he’s glad that they followed him and starts leading them closer to the tower. As they approach it, the tower becomes more menacing and terrifying. It’s taller than anything they’ve seen before.  
  
Masae suddenly glances over at Emile and notices a tail coming from his back. The young adult seems to be oblivious to the swishing fluff of fur.  
  
The four get to the entrance of the tower and Jake pushes the doors open to allow them to enter the grand hall that is the first floor. Emile suddenly falls to the ground, but is growling and baring his teeth, as if he was a dog. His tail is moving as he glares at what is ahead of them. A faint fiery glow emits from him as his companions stare at him. The Okami reflector is floating with a crimson flame above his back.  
  
“E-Emile. You’re in your Okami cosplay” Jon stutters out, “b-b-but, your tail moves.”  
  
Suddenly, Jake grabs Jon’s attention as a feminine cackle is heard echoing through the gigantic room. There’s a hint of playfulness mixed with insanity in that laugh. A small girl emerges from the near ebony darkness of the room.


	3. Chapter 2: The Author of Disaster

_Chapter 2: The Author of Disaster_  
  
The girl that emerges is cloaked in a kimono, a giant pen sitting in her left hand, a pencil of similar size resting in her right, her face is gone save for a pair of closed eyes. It’s as if she just stepped out of Okami, much like Emile. Jon hits a fighting stance and Jake draws out the katana he brought with him.  
  
The girl looks at the four people standing in front of her, “The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science.”  
  
Jake and Jon retract from getting ready to fight. That message means nothing to them. Masae carefully contemplates what she could mean, but before she could speak Emile barks and growls again.  
  
The girl giggles, “I suspected at least Jake here would turn up to this place. But not the rest of you.” An echo follows her words slightly, “If you are curious to where you are, and I know you’re thinking of that question. You’re in Tartarus, the Tower of Demise to your blue-haired friend. I am the Author of Disaster. I had this place designed to test your skills in various trials I have set for you. But I can’t let you enter the challenges yet. You’re missing a choice few friends that will make your life easier. Return when you have them.”  
  
Jake goes to slash at her with his sword, but to just fall to the floor as she disintegrates into black particles. Jon commands Emile to his feet and Masae attempts to calm him down. Jake looks back at the other three and contemplates who that person was. None of them know her, but she seems to be some sort of evil.  
  
Jake puts away his weapon and walks outside, being followed by the three that chased after him. The tallest put his gaze towards the sky and took note of how eerie the town was. He looked back at his friends and opened his mouth to speak.  
  
“I think this is serious guys. We need to tell the others.” Jake says carefully.  
  
Jon shakes his head, “I don’t think they’ll believe us. We can’t take pictures, so there isn’t any proof.”  
  
Jake growls at Jon, “We’ll tell them anyway! We have to find out what that girl is talking about! She knows something as to why the Dark Hour actually exists!”  
  
The Canadian sighs. He turns to look at Emile, who seems to have turned back to normal, and agrees with Jake.  
  
“But we only have about another week here together before most of you leave back for home. And I don’t think that crazy lady will let only me and Josh in there.”  
  
Masae agrees with that. Everyone starts rushing to the hotel as the green light of the moon starts to fade back to a normal night sky, have they really been out for an hour? It doesn’t concern them as they enter back into the hotel and go to their floor. Masae agrees to help Jake wake up Stephen, Mal, and Tim as Emile wakes up Josh. This needs to be discussed as soon as possible.  
  
Once inside his room, Jake flips on the light and finds a note sitting on his bed. He urges Masae to her work and starts reading it. The note reads of the challenges that everyone will face in the near future. The note also recommends that everyone bring the “fake weapon” they had on the first day of the convention. They are more real than they think they are.  
  
Jake contemplates what the not means by the “fake weapons” that he and his friends brought with them. He pushes the thought away though as he hears Stephen groan as he’s woken up by Masae.  
  
Stephen looks over at the clock, “Jake, it’s after midnight, why are you waking us up?”  
  
Jake doesn’t answer as Mallory is drug out of bed. He just tells them to get dressed and meet him downstairs with the rest of the group.  
  
After everyone is assembled at a dining table in the main lobby of the hotel Jake stands to speak.  
  
“Josh, Tim, Stephen, and Mal. Tonight, we have awakened you from your sleep because Emile, Jon, Masae, and I have witnessed something I thought to only exist in a video game made in Japan. We have witnessed, The Dark Hour.”  
  
The four stare confused at Jake. It truly is hard to believe something from a video game actually was true. None of that makes any sense.  
  
Stephen chuckles at Jake, “Ok man, you need to stop playing that game for a bit.”  
  
Jon looks at Stephen with his “this is not a joke” face. Stephen quiets down and Mallory asks what they can do about that. And is there really any way for the four that were asleep to believe this.  
  
Jake closes his eyes as he speaks again, “We’ll just have to stay by the convention center tomorrow at midnight. Also, everyone, bring the “weapons” you took with you to the con on the first day. They might be of some use to us.”  
  
The next night the group of eight was standing outside the convention center. It was just a little bit before twelve as they patiently waited for the tower to emerge. Jake looks at his friends to see how they’ve come “prepared”. Jon has the gun from Gunstar heroes, Emile looks like a human Chibitarasu with his reflector, Josh has the “IDS glove”, Stephen has a diamond sword, Mallory has a gold shovel and a mini portal-gun on her wrist, Masae has a decently sized Katamari in her hands, and Tim has a Zelda sword and shield with him.  
  
Josh looks at his watch, “It’s almost midnight. Are you even sure this thing will happen again Jake?”  
  
Jake nods his head quietly as he examines his katana. Sitting on his hip though is what appears to be an evoker. The very real blade shines in the dim moonlight of the Washington city. Jake hears Josh quietly counting down the seconds until midnight.  
  
Jake doesn’t look up as he opens his mouth to explain, “If any of you fear blood, I suggest you don’t look until we’re inside the tower.”  
  
As the night fades to green and the moon glows bright in the sky, Mallory looks away from the street at the convention center. The tall building starts making cracking and creaking noises as layers of floors starts emerging from its base.


	4. Chapter 3: Arqatraz

_Chapter 3: Arqatraz_  
  
The tower finally fully reveals itself with its peak looking like it will nearly touch the moon in the sky. Stephen looks around the block and sees any bystanders have turned into coffins. He feels a drop of something land on his arm and looks down and nearly faints as a ruby red drop slides down his arm and drips to the ground.  
  
“Uh… J-Jake, something red…” Stephen starts to stutter out.  
  
Jake looks at him and motions everyone inside, “It’s blood Stephen, and if you don’t come with us now, you’ll get drenched in it.”  
  
Dreading the thought, Stephen quickly runs into the tower behind his extremely calm wife.  
  
Everyone stands quietly on the first floor of the Tower of Demise. The mysterious girl appears before them; her attire though is completely different. Instead of a kimono she is wearing a female Gekkoukan High uniform, she has extremely clear facial features and her smile is on the verge of creepy.  
  
“Welcome to you all. I’m very pleased to see you all come to take on my challenge.” She speaks to them, her voice spine-chilling yet comforting, “There are many layers to this challenge of Tartarus. Each layer will be familiar to at least one of you. Your goal is to reach the top of this tower.”  
  
Jake pulls out his katana slowly as she explains. She tells the group that only four of them are allowed past the first floor of the tower at a time. Everyone looks amongst each other with worry, especially Stephen and Mallory.  
  
The girl chuckles, “I will make an exception for the married couple though. They can act separately but will only count as one person. They will be invaluable to you on your team SuperJeenius.”  
  
The girl disappears again in the cloud of black smoke after her declaration. Jake places his katana back in its scabbard and turns to face his friends. A determined glint flashes in his eyes as he contemplates on who he should take with him other than Stephen and Mal. The young adult doesn’t know what lies up the stairs of the tower.  
  
“Jon, Emile, you’re with me. Tim, Josh, Masae. Stay here.” Jake says quickly, “Josh, I need you to analyze any enemies we come across. Can you do that?”  
  
Josh nods his head in confirmation. Jake smiles as he leads his team of five up the stairs and to the ominous looking doors. The ash-haired male feels a surge pulse through his body as he opens the doors and walks into the first layer of the tower.  
  
The pulsations going through Jake’s blood doesn’t cease as the environment is taken in.  
  
“We’re in the Arqa block of the original Tartarus. The enemies here shouldn’t be too hard to conquer, but keep your guard up guys.” Jake says simply.  
Jon draws his gun from its holder and sets it to a specific setting, Stephen holds his sword like a baseball bat and Mal holds up her shovel. Emile has his claws at the ready to pounce. Jake gives a countdown from three before they start running through the dungeon towards the stairs. Shadows attempt to chase them but the group is just too quick compared to them.  
  
The posse’s hastened footsteps click and clack along the floors of the block as they search for the stairs. Jake estimates how many more floors they have to climb, but suddenly his steps stop and he listens carefully as a quiet rattling of chains echoes in the halls of Arqa.  
  
Josh’s voice suddenly rings through Jake’s ears with a special transmitter, “Guys, I’d better hurry! I sense death!”  
  
Stephen visually stiffens at the uttering of “death”. Mallory tries to comfort him as Jon walks up to Jake.  
  
“What is ‘death’?” He asks simply, the question is not that of curiosity, it is that of hesitation.  
  
Jake doesn’t hesitate to start running towards the stairs as his party follows along. They become more nervous as the sound of clattering chains becomes louder with every passing step. Jake eventually hangs a right and stops in front of the stairs, not going up them. Everyone gets closer to him slowly as the chains edge ever closer to them. He tells everyone to get ready for a tough fight ahead of them. Jon powers his gun to full, Emile gets down on all fours and growls, Stephen draws his sword, Mallory has her shovel, and Jake places his evoker to his head in anticipation.  
  
The clanking and rattling of the chains stop as the enemy stops in front of the five. The figure has two intensely large guns in his hands.  
  
Jake intensifies his stare, “Guys, this is the Reaper. He IS death.”  
  
Everyone nearly panics as Jake tells them they are facing death. The tallest though remains perfectly calm as the battle begins.  
  
“I am thou, thou art I.” Jake mumbles as his finger starts to press on the trigger, “Grant me strength of the FOOL ARCANA!”  
  
A thunderous bang of the gun emanates as Jake pulls the trigger. Smoke flies away from the gun as a figure emerges from the ebony darkness of Arqa. A lyre rests between its robotic hands, blood red eyes stare down at the reaper.  
  
Jake gives a simple command to the figure, “Agilao.”  
  
Before the eyes of everyone a powerful burst of fire assails the reaper. It reacts in pain at the flames as the figure disappears slowly strumming the lyre. Jake commands Emile to use anything lightning based before the reaper attacks. The partial-wolf male uses his finger to trace a thunderbolt shape that shocks the reaper with a potent burst of electricity. Stephen quickly follows up with a mighty swing of his diamond blade.  
  
The reaper is knocked to the ground and Jon calls out an all out attack. Everyone rushes towards the specter and in an outbreak of dust and dirt, with the occasional fighter, flying into the air, the reaper takes massive blows.  
  
Everyone goes back to their initial spots as Mal jumps into a portal and bashes the reaper over the head with her shovel. Jon declares a second all out attack and in another eruption of dust the reaper becomes weak.  
  
Jon finally takes his turn in using his gun to blast at the reaper with a giant fireball. As the smoke clears from the area the reaper is again knocked down, defenseless. Stephen yells out for a third all-out attack, but not wanting to risk any chance of death, Jake declines. The reaper gets up again but the spirit does not attack as Jake rushes in with his katana and swings at it, Emile shocks it again, and the process repeats until Mallory calls the all-out attack and the bringer of death vanishes into a burst of smoke.  
  
Everyone celebrates their hollow victory as Jake stops and focuses on something, suddenly all the fighters feel refreshed from their battle.  
  
“That… was freaking amazing!” Emile yells as he runs in a circle.  
  
Mallory smiles as she brushes a bit of her hair back, “I agree, but was that really death?”  
  
Jake nods, “If I had let you attack before I did, we’d all probably be dead right now. And I don’t know any spells to bring you back to life.”  
  
Stephen faints at the mention of death. Jon and Emile sigh and they wrap Stephen’s arms around their shoulders to carry him up the stairs as they continue through Arqa Block. As they reach the next floor, the scenery changes. It seems to be more like a landing than the maze-like halls before them. Mal slaps her husband awake as everyone stares at the Japanese style bridge ahead of them. The various windows reveal the outside world and the unnatural green moon as the emerald glow emanates onto the platform.  
  
The girl appears yet again, again looking as if she stepped out of Okami. Her eyes give no clue to what she is thinking. She lightly chuckles.  
  
“Congratulations you five. I didn’t expect you to face the Reaper so soon. But, you completed my Arqa challenge with a half-hour to spare in the Dark Hour. The way is open to you to the next layer of Tartarus. The wolf-boy should know the next area very well.”  
  
Before Emile could ask what she meant she flies away across the bridge into the darkness. Jake, who doesn’t want waste any time, runs ahead with Emile close at his heels. The ash haired male has no clue what awaits him as he steadily runs up the incline of the bridge. He feels the surge in his body shift from the spirit of Orpheus to something else. The surge still follows that of the Fool however.


	5. Chapter 4: The Legend of the Okami

_Chapter 4: Legend of the Okami_  
  
Jake and Emile collapse into the new area of Tartarus. Instead of cold, hard floor, Jake feels the tickling of grass under his nose. He slowly stands up and feels a slight breeze float across his ankles. He hears footsteps behind him as he opens his eyes and drinks in the scenery. Emile stands next to him and smiles graciously.  
  
Jon, Mal, and Stephen finally manage to catch up to the other two, but they too fall into the grass. They collect themselves as Emile turns to speak.  
  
“Guys, we’re in Okami! We’re just outside the Moon Cave! I think the challenge here is to defeat Orochi.” Emile crouches down to look down at the coast in front of them, his tail swaying lazily.  
  
Jon suddenly gasps as something hits him. He stares at the attire of everyone, save for Emile, and takes in immediately they are all wearing clothes in similar fashion to Ancient Japan. That explains as to why everyone tripped on their way in. Jon takes notice though that his gun looks exactly the same as before. Mallory’s portal gun has received no change as well.  
  
Emile looks back at everyone and also takes in their attire. Jon looks like the Okamiden’s retired fisherman, with less scars, Mallory is just wearing a simple kimono, Stephen wearing attire similar to Mal’s just different colors, and Jake is wearing attire just like Jon’s but with a shirt. The color scheme of each person’s is the same as that as the person’s attire in Arqa.  
  
Jake sighs as he stares at his clothes, “This outfit is very… different from Gekkoukan’s…”  
  
Jon nods as he questions as to why he’s the only one not wearing a shirt. Stephen shifts around as he tries to adjust to the new outfit. Jake ignores the minor protests of the outfits to blend into Okami as he tries listening for any information from Josh but to receive none.  
  
“I guess we’re on our own for now guys, let’s get going. Emile, you should lead the way. I don’t know anything about this game.”  
  
Emile nods and jumps off the ledge as the other four follow him, the wolf-boy is dashing ahead on all fours as he reaches the entrance to the Moon Cave. The eerie green glow of the Dark Hour’s moon shines onto the land of Nippon. Everyone runs after Emile as he reaches the entrance. They stop as they see a giant boulder standing in the way of the entrance.  
  
Jon utters a curse under his breath as Jake contemplates the puzzle. Emile facepalms as he tells Jake to hit the rock with his sword. Jake nods as he draws out the shiny katana from its sheath. The tallest male steps back a bit as he prepares to rush the stone and slashes the thin blade across the cold rock. Unbeknownst to Jake though, Emile reinforced the blow of the blade with his own skill of power slash.  
  
The top half of the stone falls away from its other half and the path becomes open to the party. Jake slowly sheathes his blade and smiles knowingly at Emile. The brunette grins and shows off his fangs. The group starts walking into the Moon Cave.  
  
Everyone looks around the cave as Emile starts drawing on pieces of paper and sticking them to everyone’s faces. Jon becomes irritated as his already poor vision is obscured by something possibly stupid Emile drew. Jake feels the same feeling as Jon as he attempts to see through the parchment. Emile apologizes as he draws in slivers to allow everyone to see in front of them.  
  
Jake smiles as he starts reading the words Emile wrote onto the pieces of paper for everyone. Each one has something to do with the person wearing the paper. Emile’s has the word for ‘god’, Stephen has ‘husband’, Mal has ‘wife’, and Jon has ‘hero’. Jake figures he has ‘persona’ written on his mask. Emile smiles at his work and starts walking deeper into the cave, his friends tailing close behind. Imps pay no mind as the group of five walks around the Moon Cave, they pay especially no mind to Emile on his hands and knees.  
  
“Emile, you need to walk around like the rest on us. On your feet.” Jon says quietly, almost demanding.  
  
Emile begrudgingly stands up. The group continues until they reach the room that contains the bridge that should be there for them to get across. However, the bridge is out and a giant chasm waits below their feet.  
  
Emile watches as the others try to find a way across the gap. Emile suddenly gets a quick thought in his head.  
  
“Mallory, shoot a portal close to the door and one at my feet. Don’t ask, just do it.” Emile barks to the young woman.  
  
Mallory carefully places the portal as Emile starts to draw something with his finger. Emile gets on all fours and nods to Mallory to shoot the portal. The blue portal opens in front of Emile and he carefully crawls through it and onto the wall as he uses the power of Catwalk to defy the laws of physics and gravity.  
  
Emile’s feet make a light tap on the rock as he places himself at the door and power slashes the rock in front of it. The brunette turns around and smiles.  
  
Jake stands in awe at the sight of Emile walking on the wall. He pushes the idea of defying gravity away as he hears Emile shout from the other side.  
  
“Jake, I need you to relax your body! This WILL hurt!”  
  
Jake relaxes his body a little as a vine suddenly wraps around his waist and pulls him over to Emile, and crashing into the ground as the vine releases him. Everyone else is pulled over one by one as Emile draws continuous vines from his friends to him.  
  
Jon places his feet firmly on the ground as Emile exhausts the last of his currently available ink. The red stripes and reflector disappear from Emile’s pale figure as he rests. The young adult’s tail weakly sways from side to side as Emile pants.  
  
“That… took more… energy… than I… expected…” Emile says between labored breaths, “I’ll have… to… plan out… when and… how I… use my… power…”  
  
Mallory nods in agreement, “We should all rest for a bit and think of a plan against this… Orochi… that we have to fight.”  
  
Everyone nods and takes a quick breather, Emile’s stripes and reflector return shortly as the divine ink restores itself in… whatever inventory system Emile somehow has. As Jake pushes himself from the wall he starts hearing white noise enter his ear.  
  
“Guys… about… minutes… the Dark Hour… end soon…” Josh’s voice is cutting in and out as static interferes from the lack of modern technology in ancient Nippon.  
  
“Josh, I didn’t get all that, repeat yourself.” Jake replies trying to get a better sense of reception.  
  
“Ten minutes… the Dark… the tower… disappears… you inside…”  
  
The transmission ends abruptly and Josh is lost, “We have no more time to waste. I don’t want to know what happens when the Dark Hour ends with us in here.” Jake’s calm voice is traced with worry and panic as a time limit truly feels set upon them.  
  
Everyone gets up quickly and starts rushing towards Orochi’s lair. Anticipation is high as the five scale the spiral path. Jon catches a glimpse of one of Orochi’s eight heads and gulps. This battle will not be an easy one, and he does not want to know what happens if any of them get knocked out.  
  
The five reach the top and are able to take in the full sight that is the legendary Yamata-No-Orochi. Mallory panics and grabs onto Stephen for support. Everyone except for Emile is shaking at the sight of the terrible beast.  
  
The battle begins as Emile rushes off the cliff they are perched on and drawing the attention of the main dragon head. The head stares down the young adult and gives a mighty roar.  
  
Emile foolishly forgot he doesn’t have to agility or reflexes of Amatarasu and only narrowly avoided the head coming down to try and eat him. He starts to panic as he tries to get up as the other heads have caught onto his presence.  
  
Jake tells Mallory to prepare two portals as he jumps down and draws out his evoker as he finally figures out the sensation he’s been feeling. He lands on the ground and shouts to gain the attention of the heads as he places the barrel of the evoker to his temple and his finger on the trigger.  
  
“IZANAGI! MAZIONGA!” He shouts as the dragon heads start to attack him.  
  
Multiple bursts of lightning rain down on the eight heads and rendering seven of them stunned long enough for Jake to rush over to Emile and help him up.  
  
“You’re an idiot you know.” Jake says as he runs with Emile into the portal Mallory had laid out for them.  
  
“I got a little caught up in the moment…” Emile admits.  
  
Jon brushes some of his hair back, “But it did probably do some good damage to them. But we need to think of something quickly. We’re running out of time.”  
  
Stephen nods, “I think you three should handle this. I don’t think a shovel or sword will do too much against this snake.”  
  
Emile suddenly comes up with a brilliant idea and brings everyone in close to listen. He instructs Jon to keep continuously shooting at the serpent from afar to keep its attention, Jake to rain down lightning to evenly distribute the attacks and Emile will attack the heads that aren’t in Jon’s range or affected by Jake’s Zio skills. He finally instructs Mallory to place a portal at the ledge of the cliff and in front of the main serpent head, so that when the battle is almost over Stephen can finish him off properly.  
  
Everyone agrees and three more weaponized party members begin their barrage. The heads reel in pain from the Maziongas Jake throws down and Jon’s fire blaster. Emile is running circles around the serpent and attacking the heads as they attempt to strike him down. The battle is intense as lightning strikes down fire, divine weapons hack and strike against scales, and fire balls flare up against the beast.  
  
Emile turns around quickly and barely dodges out of the way of the serpent as he shouts to Stephen that it’s time for him to end the battle once and for all. The tall man jumps into the portal his wife prepared and begins slicing up Orochi’s many heads with his diamond blade as Emile instructs Mallory where to place the portals.  
  
Stephen flies into the air with the last portal and begins to evenly slice the last of Orochi’s heads in the direct middle of its neck. Mallory and Jon jump down and join the other three men on the ground as the eight-headed serpent lies upon the ground, slain yet again.  
  
Josh’s voice rings into Jake’s ear, “Guys… exit… left… to hurry!”  
  
Jake gets the basic point to the message and spots an access point off to the left of them. He starts running towards it and yells at everyone else to follow him. Stephen picks up Mallory and carries her out as Emile follows behind. Jon jogs backwards as he watches the area around them quake and begin to crumble.  
  
The five tumble out of the access point just as Nippon’s area and Arqa begin to collapse as Tartarus begins to fade away with the Dark Hour. Josh, Masae, and Tim help their friends up and all of the group rush out of the tower just as it turns back into the Convention Center and the gates to the Tower of Demise close and disappear in front of them.  
  
Everyone is taking big gasps of breath as they calm down from that experience.  
  
Jake finally speaks up, “Two levels… down, who… knows how many… more…”  
  
Josh nods his head as he gets up from the pavement as the night sky fades from green to the darkest navy blue he’s ever seen before. The blood rain ceases falling around the group and the remaining drops and puddles become water.  
  
Emile stands up and dusts off his jeans before he speaks, “I have a feeling our ‘challenge’ is only going to get more difficult from here on out.”  
  
Masae agrees with him, “It makes me curious to how we are supposed to handle areas that have to deal with the skills Josh, Stephen and I posses. The games we represent aren’t exactly linear and are generally puzzle based.”  
  
Jake sheathes his katana and examines a nasty gash on his hand from when he fell into Nippon, “The same way we dealt with the Reaper and Orochi. By using all of our skills to the best of our abilities. Now, we need to get some rest.”  
  
Everyone nods in agreement as they make their way back to their hotel rooms. As each person retires to their room one by one they collapse onto the bed and fall asleep.


	6. Chapter 5: The Helmaroc King

_Chapter 5; The Helmaroc King_  
  
Jake is up early as he travels the Convention Center. He’s trying to catch sight of the girl from Tartarus to see if she may be a Con-goer. But with all the people at PAX it’s nearly impossible for Jake to even find Josh. The young adult’s grey eyes slip closed as he thinks.  
  
His train of thought is derailed when he hears Emile’s voice behind him. Jake waves to the younger brunette as he approaches. Emile smiles, just wide enough for Jake to catch his tooth gap before speaking.  
  
“Find any sign of the little author girl from the tower?” Emile asks the taller.  
  
Jake shakes his head as the two walk together to see if they can catch a glimpse of her before they head out for lunch that day.  
  
The day passes uneventfully for the Let’s Players. Sunday was usually the slow day for PAX but oddly enough the convention is a little sluggish. It might be just because some of the goers work on Mondays and the younger people are still in school and had to go back home. Masae has handed out all her clay statues to fans, Emile has play tested the games he wanted to, Josh attended the panels he wanted, and the TRG tournament had been recorded on Friday.  
  
Night creeps up onto the group again as they prepare for their next challenge, whatever it may be. They all gather at the doors of the PAX Convention Center. A gentle rain falls on everyone’s heads.  
  
Jake is shining his katana again as they wait. Josh keeps track of the time, and Stephen is practicing his swings with his sword. Emile peers into the window of the door to see what the transformation looks like from the inside.  
  
“Four…” Josh mumbles, “Three… Two… One…”  
  
The ground begins to rumble as the clock strikes midnight, Emile’s face slams into the door as he’s thrown off balance, slightly cracking the window. The damage though occurred to the Tower’s Door, so no harm done. The layers of the tower return, even the two already finished, as the building ascends into the sky of the cloudy Seattle night. The iridescent glow of the moon shines it light through the clouds and rain.  
  
The droplets of rain start to turn red as the Dark Hour sets in, the bystanders are locked into coffins, and all electricity powers off during this “hidden” hour of the night.  
  
The team rushes into the building before their clothes stain with blood. Two lights are illuminating the floor from the ceiling. The one to the left is the symbol of Gekkoukan High School; the other on the right is the Okami Reflector. Tim steps forward and notices a faint glow in the middle in the form of the Triforce.  
  
The oldest turns around and speaks, “I think the next challenge has something to do with the Legend of Zelda.”  
  
Everyone nods as Jake begins selecting his team. Emile’s wolf ears perk up as he hears something. He looks up and growls as he notices the Author of Disaster. Her attire is different yet again. She looks like Tetra from Zelda, the Wind Waker.  
  
“I must commend your bravery for returning here even though you all nearly got turned into pancakes last night.” She smiles a twisted, wicked smile. “The challenge awaits you at the top of these stairs, _friends_.”  
  
With her declaration finished she disappears in the cloud of black particles as usual. But she left behind an item, the Skull Hammer. Tim walks quietly to it and picks it up.  
  
Emile speaks up as Jake finishes his choice for battle, “If I’m putting two and two together, I think we have to fight the Helmaroc King from Wind Waker. That would be the only logical explanation as to why she left the Skull Hammer.”  
  
Jake nods his head and looks for another faint light on the floor. But he doesn’t see any, “Alright guys. Let’s get up there and take down the Helmaroc King.”  
  
Jake and his current team of Emile, Tim, and Josh start to walk up the stairs. Jake feels his core energy shift from Izanagi to something of an entirely different Arcana. Jake’s pulse is bounding, like his heart will beat right out of his chest, as the new Persona settles itself in his psyche. Jake nearly collapses from just the energy he had to use to get up the stairs, but the new Persona is giving him the strength he needs to press on.  
  
The team of four push into the door at the top of the stairs to gain access to the new area of Tartarus, the smell of the sea hits them strongly as they walk through the gate.  
  
Mallory’s voice starts to ring in Jake’s ear, “Jake, can you hear me ok?”  
  
“Loud and clear Mal. Keep us updated on how much time we have ok?” Jake replies as he looks around.  
  
“Will do.”  
  
Emile scampers up a small flight of stairs and peers over the wall. The other three follow him and are astonished to find that they are at the very bottom of the Forsaken Fortress from Wind Waker. All four duck as a search light comes their way and nearly spots them.  
  
Emile curses under his breath as Josh and Jake try to ponder an idea to get past the search lights without being caught. Tim peers over the top of the wall again and sees that the search light is moving away from them. He quickly climbs up the side of the wall and pounds the pegs blocking the other set of stairs before the light begins moving in that direction.  
  
Jake sighs in relief as Tim barely avoids being caught. The eldest motions for the other three to follow him as the searchlight moves away from the stairs again. Emile holds his breath as he slows down time with the power of mist as the light narrowly avoids the tip of his wolf tail.  
  
The wolf-boy falls onto the safe part of the stairs as the power of slowed time wears off. Jake looks around from their vantage point and sees the three guard’s towers.  
  
“I believe I have an idea.” Jake says, adjusting his glasses, “If Emile, Josh, and I can take out those towers, it’ll give Tim enough time to get to where we need to be.”  
  
The other three nod at the proposition. Tim, Emile, and Josh run off to go get the harder to find towers as Jake hides in a barrel to get the tower close to the base of the fortress. He carefully shuffles the barrel to the ladder that leads to the closest watch tower. When he deems it safe he lifts the barrel off of him and starts climbing the ladder.  
  
In another hallway Emile sees a moblin trudging around with a lantern. With Emile’s memory of Wind Waker he knows he has to get to the second floor, and fairly quickly. The moblin turns around and starts to walk away from Emile.  
  
“I only have one shot at this.” Emile mumbles to himself.  
  
The wolf boy dashes out from his hiding spot and gets the moblin’s attention, and sounds the alarm meaning he has to get thrown into the jail.  
  
In another hall Josh hears the alarm. He panics because he doesn’t know if it was an intentional set-off by Emile or an accident by Tim or Jake. Josh doesn’t have time to worry because he has a watch tower to take down. He looks at his IDS glove and holds his breath as he flips gravity. He sighs in relief he sees that only he flipped to the ceiling. The moblin below him oblivious to what happened, and too dumb to look up. Josh begins to run through the series of three halls.  
  
Tim is biding his time at the wall he has to sidle against to get to the next set of stairs. He can’t be hasty because all three towers are still active. Tim began to worry when he heard the alarm set off towards the bottom of the fortress. But he couldn’t let himself be concerned knowing that Emile went through the hall that required him to be captured.  
  
Jake peers off the side of another ladder and sees Emile being carried off by two moblins towards the second tower. The bespectacled male doesn’t have time to worry if Emile accidentally got caught. Jake continues his silent climb up the ladder to the watch tower. He reaches the top and crouches low to the ground. He silently walks around the base of the lights and gets behind the guard. He lightly taps a near-by vase with his sword until the guard moves the lights so they point at the sky.  
  
Josh has finally made it to the base of the tower he has to climb. He feels a little lightheaded from all the gravity switching he did. The young adult grasps the rungs on the ladder and begins his slow ascension upward. He takes a peek over his shoulder and sees the tower that Jake was at is no longer active. He climbs a little higher and sees Jake jump off the tower and dive into the water. Josh reaches the top of the tower and quietly switches the function of the IDS glove to only affect what’s around him. He sneaks around and picks up a stick from the vase and grabs the guard’s attention.  
  
Emile is thrown into the cell of the jail as he’s been “captured”. He waits for the guards to leave before crawling up onto the bookcase and escaping the poorly designed cell. He falls out of the hole onto the ground of the second floor. He looks around and sees he’s perfectly alone. The wolf-boy starts dashing towards the door to get to the watch tower. He reaches the base of the tower and cusses as he notices the ladder is broke. He glances over though and sees an oddly convenient cat statue he can use. The brunette uses the divine ink of the Okami to draw a path from the ground to the top of the watch tower. After the ink sets itself on the wall in a yellow glow he begins his ascent. He quickly reaches the top and looks over the wall to see the other two towers taken down along with Josh and Jake waiting at the bottom for him to get there. He smirks as he dashes around to reach the guard.  
  
Tim takes a sigh of relief when he sees the third tower deactivate and Emile take a leap of faith off the side of the tower. The other three run over to the ledge where Tim is waiting for them. Josh switches his glove again and lifts the group of three to Tim. When the youngest lands back on the ground safely they begin their ascent to reach the Helmaroc King. The climb is slow, but steady, as the three make their way past more guard moblins.  
  
The finally make it to the top of the tower and Tim pounds the final stakes in their way.  
  
Mallory’s voice suddenly rings in Jake’s ears, “Guys, you have thirty minutes left. Use it wisely; the access point is beyond the battlefield. If you run out of time you’re squished.”  
  
Jake nods, “Thanks for the information Mal.”  
  
The four walk up to the battlefield where the author awaits. She’s grinning mischievously as she leisurely floats on her pen.  
  
“It was amusing to watch you three scramble trying to take down the watch towers. You didn’t have to do that, so you wasted your time.” She smirks.  
  
Jake draws his katana, “What are you talking about?”  
  
“If you were clever you would have realized that the path you took didn’t even go past the watch towers. You wasted thirty minutes of your precious time for nothing.”  
  
“And you’re wasting even more of it!” Emile growls.  
  
The author giggles as she dodges an arrow from Tim’s bow. She disappears in a puff of smoke as the Helmaroc King lands on the arena. The bird screeches loudly as the battle starts. Josh and Emile focus on distracting the bird and getting him to pound his beak into the ground. When he finally does pound into the ground Tim smashes his mask with the Skull Hammer.  
  
Jake is standing at the side trying to figure out what his persona is capable of. He tries to focus on his psyche and gain control of his persona. He is so focused that he doesn’t notice the Helmaroc King rush towards him and slam him off the tower.  
  
“JAKE!” The other three yell as their friend falls off the tower.  
  
The other three don’t have time to find a way to save Jake. They press on with their efforts of dispatching the bird.  
  
Jake’s eyes snap open as he presses the evoker to his forehead. He only has one chance of this working properly.  
  
“VALKYRIE!” Jake shouts as the evoker shoots him.  
  
The spirit of the Norse horsewoman emerges from thin air and dashes under Jake and saves him from his fall. He thanks her and points to the Helmaroc King.  
  
“I need you to take me back up there so I can help my friends.” He says as the Valkyrie starts riding towards that direction.  
  
The silent shield maiden rushes as fast her horse will take her and drops Jake off. He commands her to use bufula on the bird after Tim hits him again with the hammer. The spell forms crystals of pure ice on the ground that shot up and dealt the finishing blow to the bird.  
  
Mallory’s voice chimes in again, “The light on the ground is fully illuminated, you boys are done there. I think you should hurry back. There’s only about ten minutes left.”  
  
Jake nods and thanks the Valkyrie for saving him. She softly speaks of how he is high on her list for warriors that are taken to Asgard. Jake has a quizzical look on his face as she disappears into his psyche again. But no one has the time to figure out what she means. The group of four starts rushing towards the access point. But they all run straight into an invisible wall.  
  
Emile rubs his nose and feels a little blood, “I think I may have a broken nose…”  
  
Jake looks up and sees the author, “Your nose is the least of our concerns.”  
  
The author giggles, “My, my. You boys sure like injuring yourselves in here. What’s next? Death?”  
  
Josh stands up and uses the heavy dimension to bring the author down to the ground. He starts running up to her and hits the power of slowed time to allow himself to pick up the Skull Hammer and smack the author into the invisible wall. He hit the heavy dimension again just as she was about to make contact with it. And because inertia is unaffected by the dimensions the impact is ten times as powerful.  
  
The wall shatters into a giant pile of broken glass. The author is rendered incapacitated by Josh’s attack. Josh reverts the dimension back to normal and helps his friends up. Jake dusts off his jacket.  
  
“How did you do that Josh!? You were moving so fast!” Emile exclaims, his tail wagging madly.  
  
Josh chuckles, “I slowed down time. And then I made everything ten times heavier so the impact could break the wall. The glass wasn’t affected by dimensional shifts apparently.  
  
Jake speaks up chuckling, “The author apparently forgot to write that detail down.”  
  
Mallory’s voice all of sudden chimed in again, “Where are you guys? There’s only five minutes left! Get out of there!”  
  
“Apparently the dimensional shifts didn’t affect the lobby at all.” Jake says as he runs to the access point.  
  
The four stumble out as Tartarus begins shaking violently. Masae, Jon, Stephen, and Mal help the four up and start rushing out just as the ceiling starts falling down. Jon trips on a piece of debris and feels something land on his leg. Emile turns around grabs his friend’s wrists and pulls him out of the rubble. Jon gives a minor complaint of pain as he starts running again.  
  
The group stumbles outside just as the tower finishes collapsing and turning back into the convention center. The outfits revert back to normal clothes, Emile’s tail and ears disappear, and everything seems to revert to the usual.  
  
Jon sits up on the sidewalk and he rubs his lower leg, “Feels like something got torn as Emile pulled me out of there…”  
  
“Oh man, I’m sorry Jon!” Emile says as he kneels next to his best friend, “I didn’t mean to hurt you…”  
  
Jon hugs Emile suddenly, “Come on Chugga! You saved me back there! A torn muscle is nothing!”  
  
Emile smiles and helps his friend stand up. The night fades to blue as the Dark Hour officially ends for the night.


	7. Chapter 6: Diamonds and Dragons

_Chapter 6: Diamonds and Dragons_  
  
The convention is officially over, and the Let’s Players that don’t live in Washington, and have to take a plane to get back to their homes, only have about five or six more days left. Everyone can feel the beatings that they have taken as they take the time to recover slightly. The gash on Jake’s hand is still extremely open, Emile’s nose is officially broken, and Jon has a torn calf muscle. Everyone, except Masae, has their fair share of bruises littering their bodies.  
  
Masae is lightly massaging Emile’s shoulders as everyone talks about the close call last night.  
  
“If these injuries keep up we won’t be able to finish the tower!” Josh says as he bangs his fist on a hotel desk.  
  
Stephen nods, “I think Emile should take a rest tonight. He’s had enough action for a little bit.”  
  
“I’m out too with a torn muscle.” Jon mumbles as he takes his ice pack off and wraps his leg with ace wrap.  
  
Jake sighs unceremoniously, “That means I have to take Masae tonight.”  
  
Masae glares at Jake with a ‘if looks could kill’ stare, “Are you saying I can’t fight?”  
  
Jake gulps before Mallory changes subjects, “Anyway. Last night after you boys finished the Helmaroc King a new light illuminated faintly on the floor. It looked like a Minecraft Sword.”  
  
Everyone looks at the married couple, “It would be a good idea if both Mal and I went tonight if it’s a Minecraft area.” Stephen says light-heartedly.  
  
Jake enters a thinking pose; Stephen and Mal DID finish an actual Minecraft Let’s Play; so they’d be the only ones with knowledge of the game. But with both Emile and Jon out for the night Jake has no choice but to bring Masae and Tim along. But he doesn’t want Tim to exhaust himself either going two nights in a row. And he doesn’t want to risk Masae getting hurt; he’d never hear the end of it from Emile.  
  
“I almost hate to say this,” Jake starts, getting everyone in the hotel room’s attention, “But I’m not taking anyone except Stephen and Mal tonight until further notice.”  
  
Everyone looks at each other worriedly. Josh decides to speak up, “Why not Jake?”  
  
“From the small bit of knowledge of that game I have, taking Tim and Masae would be too risky. Emile and Jon can’t come, and you, Josh, have to stay downstairs because I’m bringing Mallory. It’s bad enough I’m going in with an injured hand.”  
  
Emile finally decides to speak, “He has a point unfortunately. Especially since Stephen and Mal are really the only ones with actual Minecraft knowledge.”  
  
Mallory nods in agreement, “And judging by how the trials have been going, we may have the trial of finding the End Portal and defeating the Ender Dragon. A very difficult task.”  
  
Jake groans and rubs his temples. Can these things can any worse?  
  
The night comes again just as slow as the previous. Nevertheless, the pace the nightfall came was exceedingly welcomed by the group of eight. Josh is watching as the second hand ticks to midnight again. Jon is leaning on Emile for support to keep weight off his injured leg. Jake is polishing Stephen’s sword to make sure it’s in perfect condition. Mallory is also cleaning her shovel as they wait.  
  
Josh decides to speak, “Jake, who exactly was that woman last night?”  
  
“The Valkyrie?” Jake asks inquiringly, getting a nod from Josh, “She was my Persona. I’ve had two others that have been helping me out. Personas are physical manifestations of my inner psyche.”  
  
“You have a cool inner psyche then.”  
  
“I’m just lucky I didn’t end up with Omoikane or, worse, _Mara_ as a persona. Because, I know my mind probably has a feeding ground for those two somewhere in there.”  
  
Josh gets a look on his face that signifies he’s not going to ask what those are as Jake outwardly shudders at the thought of this ‘Mara’ persona. But Josh wouldn’t have had a chance to ask as the ground below their feet begins to shake with powerful force as Tartarus appears for the fourth time. The quakes seem more violent this time to the weary heroes.  
  
After the tower reappears and the rumbles underfoot cease the group walks in. Mal points out the light faintly illuminating the floor in the shape of a Minecraft diamond sword. The Triforce has relocated to the northwest of the Gekkoukan logo. Jon looks around and notices their little author “friend” isn’t floating around taunting them.  
  
“That author girl must still be recovering from crashing into that wall.” Josh says, as if reading Jon’s mind. Sort of.  
  
Jake sighs as he tells Stephen and Mal to follow him. Masae huffs out her chest and follows the other three up the stairs. Jake was about to protest her joining him when he started to feel the weight of the Valkyrie leave his psyche and be replaced with something less pleasant. He couldn’t tell the persona, but that eerie sense of evil and foreboding gave him no doubt it was of the Devil Arcana. Jake drops his argument as his persona tells him to look beyond Masae’s appearance and see what is truly deep inside of the girl, her soul.  
  
The leader turns around with no protest to the younger girl and tells the other three to follow him, and to hurry. He enters the door with a monotone “we don’t have all night.”  
  
The other three follow the ash-haired male into the doors. The sound of trees rustling enters their ears as the new challenge area is entered. The four look around and take in Minecraft in all its pixel block goodness. Jake takes note that the eerie green moon still lingers in the sky, just blockier here compared to the other areas. Mal hears an explosion high above them and a glowing book falls to Stephen’s feet.  
  
“It’s a written book.” He says opening it, “Instruction manual. Mal and I have ‘server’ controls, like spawning items, but only as needed. All four of us have the ability to fly but ‘flying’ is termed as walking in the air and ascent is treated as stairs in the sky. Also, Minecraft items will take on a real world form if they come into direct contact with us. Like arrows, potions, books, and anything not the ground.”  
  
Masae looks and sees an Enderman off a ways lazily walking about. Stephen brings out his sword and walks over to it, but doesn’t look at its face. The man slowly saunters up to the tall, slender creature he then suddenly jumps up and begins attacking the Enderman. Three quick swipes of the diamond blade and the enemy goes down. It drops a blue-grey pearl. Stephen reaches out to grab it and it gravitates and disappears into his core.  
  
Mallory looks over at her husband as he walks back. Masae has started destroying dirt blocks and rolling them onto her Katamari. The ball starts growing in size as she rolls it in a circle. The blocks start attaching to the colorful ball and it continues to grow. Jake, Stephen, and Mal step away from it as it starts growing rapidly as Masae rolls more and more dirt, trees, stone, and other assorted blocks in her way onto the Katamari.  
  
Soon enough the raven-haired girl has rolled her Katamari into the ground and tunneled down into the Minecraft earth. Jake hears Josh’s voice ring into his ear saying that the path to get to the stronghold is in a cave somewhere in the hole Masae has dug. The bespectacled man nods.  
  
“Masae, is there any way for you to make that smaller so we can get to the cave?” Stephen asks.  
  
Masae crawls her way onto the top of the Katamari and starts jumping on it. She uses the bounciness of the ball to create a trampoline effect and get enough altitude to where she lands on the sphere and cause all the objects she’s picked up to explode off of it. The Katamari reverts to its original size. Masae catches it as it flies up to her in the air.  
  
The cave is revealed below now that all the stuff Masae picked up is gone. However, speaking of Masae, she is still in the air, the other three members of her party are looking at her. Masae realizes Jake is almost directly under her. She pushes against the fabric of her dress and stares livid daggers at the ash-haired male.  
  
“Don’t look up!” She barks as she starts walking down in the air, as if she was on an invisible staircase.  
  
Jake slowly turns around as Josh starts telling him the way to find the stronghold, and of the dangers that lie beneath the ground. Stephen and Mal both spawn a complete stack of torches to use on their trek into the underground.  
  
Soon the quartet is deep underground, and have battled countless numbers of creepers, spiders, zombies, and Endermen. Each of them has taken quite a beating and are growing wearing fairly quickly.   
  
Jake is checking a path ahead of him to see if he’s on the right track. Josh has been trying to guide him but the darkness around isn’t making it an easy task. Jake takes a left at a corridor into an abandoned mine shaft and places a torch. He recoils back as the sudden light blinds him for a split second. By the time his vision returns to him there is a skeleton in front of him. It hasn’t caught sight of the yet.  
  
Jake turns around and starts to rush back just as the skeleton turns around and starts shooting arrows. Most of them graze by, however; one manages to strike Jake right in the deltoid of his right arm. The ash-haired male rounds the corner he came from and rests against a wall. He takes out his evoker with his opposite hand and pulls the trigger.  
  
“Lilim…” He pants in pain, “Agilao.”  
  
The little devil girl flies around the corner and attacks the skeleton with a large blast of fire. Not even ash remains after the skeleton dies. Lilim then disappears back into Jake’s consciousness as Stephen and Mal find him against the wall in pain.  
  
“This is the last time we all split up like that.” Stephen says with authority.  
  
Jake nods in agreement. Stephen asks Mal to do something; Jake didn’t quite hear what, as Stephen turns Jake and breaks the arrow at its end. Jake howls in pain as the other man removes the projectile from his shoulder. Blood starts to ooze from the wound and stain Jake’s jacket. The one with glasses is in too much pain to summon Lilim again and use Dia. However, Mallory walks up with a bottle filled with a red liquid. She waits for Masae to walk up to the other three before takes the bottle and smashes it onto the ground.  
  
The wound on Jake’s shoulder closes up completely and the blood ceases to run. The pain becomes a minor ache and minor scratches from earlier disappear. The injuries of the other three also disappear as the potion takes effect.  
  
“Thank you love.” Stephen says to his wife.  
  
“Yes, thank you Mallory.” Jake adds on.  
  
The two men stand up as Jake indicates the path he was on was the right way. The three other party members walk behind him as he leads the way. Jake hopes things get a little easier from here.  
  
But their troubles only get bigger as they reach a very large ravine. It spans nearly sixty five feet across, and the team is nearly at the top making it about a hundred foot drop.  
  
“I can’t get an exact reading from your location, but the stronghold is somewhere across that chasm.” Josh says as he tries to pinpoint the portal.  
  
Stephen sighs and spawns a stack of blocks. There is a path on the other side of the ravine so the tall man starts placing blocks to make a very narrow bridge to the other side. It’s very risky, seeing he could slip and fall, or worse get shot by a stray arrow. Stephen treads carefully as he places down the dirt. He thanks Minecraft physics that they don’t fall due to gravity.  
  
Stephen makes it to the other side of the ravine in one piece. He goes off to a closed path and digs down three blocks. He begins excavating a little ways before placing down TNT two blocks high. He goes to place a torch on the adjacent wall, but accidentally places down a redstone torch. The garnet glow of the stone ignites the TNT. Stephen panics and turns around and tries climbing the wall but he is just too short. Then both blocks of TNT explode behind him, the blast throws him into the wall and knocks him unconscious.  
  
On the other side of the ravine, Mallory, Jake, and Masae hear the TNT go off and Stephen’s stifled yell of pain. Mallory panics and starts to run across the narrow bridge Stephen had built across the abyss. A lone skeleton is sitting up on a ledge; it catches sight of Mal and starts shooting arrows at her. Most fly harmlessly by, but one grazes against her side, knocking her off balance.  
  
Mal manages to shoot a portal at the wall on the other side of the ravine, and another below her as she falls. The ground below her comes up fast as gravity pulls her down and she crashes into the wall behind her as the portal flings her to the other side of the ravine. The backache she acquired screams at her not to move, but she is so desperate to make sure her husband is okay she ignores it.  
  
Stephen is beginning to wake up as he sees Mal struggles to get to him through portals. She looks likes she’s in pain, and he tries to move, but the burns on his back and the ache of a bruised ribcage prevents him. Mal eventually manages to crawl over to him and summons a potion of healing to restore them both, even if just a little. Both manage to stand up as the potion takes effect on them.  
  
A portal opens up next to Jake and Masae and the two walk in to see the married couple placing down torches to light the tunnel Stephen blew open. Josh’s voice comes back into the ears of Jake.  
  
“Well, believe it or not you have forty-five minutes. The portal is a little ways away though.”  
  
Jake nods as the four continue their trek in the murky darkness of the cave. The scenery changes a bit though from the cave to what appears to be the ruins of a civilization. The twisted corridors are now stone bricks in a linear path with hallways. The four tread carefully, to avoid any trip wire that may be lying around. They reach a central room after a bit of exploring.  
  
Stephen spawns a few items and takes out the blue pearls that Endermen have dropped. He combines all the items and the pearls obtain a look that is vaguely similar to a cat’s eye.  
  
He holds one in his hand and throws it, it gracefully floats up and away. The group follows to where it landed and Stephen tosses it again. It floats away again. The cycle continues until the group reaches a giant room in the strong hold. The floor ends at a cliff that goes down about 150 feet. The group of four looks up as the Eye of Ender floats straight up. There is a ledge right above the quartet about twenty feet up.  
  
Jake backs up a bit and looks up into the hole above him. There is no path beyond the ledge it seems, but is just big enough for one person to fit up there and dig a path to the portal room. Mal comes up with an idea as she places a portal at her feet. She walks over to the edge of the cliff and shoots the other portal straight down and watches as it opens at the bottom.  
  
“Alright Jake,” Mallory starts, “I need you to dive head first into the portal at the bottom of the cliff here.”  
  
“ARE YOU INSANE!?” Jake shouts, an echo resounding in the cave.  
  
Mallory has her ‘no nonsense’ face as Jake dejectedly walks to the edge of the cliff. Mallory repositions the portal at the base of the ledge and tells Jake to jump. The man sighs as he pushes off the ground and starts free falling.  
  
“If I’m even just an inch off this will kill me…” He mumbles as the portal comes closer to him.  
  
Stephen steps back in surprise as Jake is flung out of the other portal and flies up to grab the ledge. Mallory shoots the other portal away from the cliff so they don’t risk needing to fall down there again. Mal throws a pickaxe she made up to Jake so he can tunnel through the stone and make room for Mal to shoot a portal when he gets high enough.  
  
“Just watch out for silverfish!” Stephen shouts as Jake begins mining.  
  
The path is quickly opened to the portal room and Jake makes the hole wide enough that Mal is able to shoot her portal onto a wall and get the other three of the group up with him. Stephen jogs onto the altar and starts placing the Eyes of Ender into the portal, treading carefully so he does not fall into the lava below him.  
  
The Portal opens as Stephen places the last eye. The other three join him up on the altar as Josh’s voice rings in again.  
  
“Good luck in there guys, as far as I can tell, I can’t contact you past here overly well. So, promise me you’ll come back safe and sound?”  
  
Jake sighs, “I can’t even guarantee we’ll come back alive Josh. I can’t promise anything.”  
  
Jake hears Josh sigh on the other side before a round of pep talk comes from the TRG members urging the four to do their best.  
  
Masae smiles, “At the count of three do we jump?”  
  
Jake nods as Stephen starts the countdown. At the sound of three the quartet jumped into the night-sky pattern of the Ender Portal. They have the sense of falling as the End emerges from beyond the portal entrance.  
  
Once the group of four set foot in the End the author’s laugh echoed throughout the realm. However, she is not to be seen, her voice just continues to echo as she starts to talk.  
  
“I’m surprised the creepers didn’t blow you to bits, or the cliffs didn’t make you fall to your deaths.” She chuckles, “But, you better hurry, the clock is ticking, and the dragon is coming.”  
  
The voice stops resounding as the Ender Dragon flies close to the ground and nearly knocks the four off the ledge. The battle will draw out and be the biggest test of endurance the four have faced yet.


	8. Chapter 7: Obsidian Death

Chapter 7: Obsidian Death

The four Let’s Players lose their footing as the dragon nearly knocks them off the edge of the floating island they’re on. The dragon turns around and starts flying straight towards Mallory. Stephen manages to jump in front of her and slice its neck with his sword. 

“Any damage we do won’t matter as long as we leave those crystals on top of the obsidian towers.” Stephen says as the dragon flies away temporarily.

“But how do we get up there is my question.” Jake replies in a panic as he keeps his head low to avoid staring at an Enderman.

Mallory shoots a portal at the Obsidian and sees that it still functions properly. Masae suddenly remembers something vitally important.

“We can fly! Remember?” The raven haired girl says.

Jake facepalms at the simple realization, remembering that fact could have saved them so many headaches. Stephen does a step jump and finds himself above the ground slightly. Jake does the same as Stephen and starts running and finds himself at the same altitude. Mal suggests he looks up as he runs. Jake nods and does that and finds himself climbing through the air. He does a roll as the dragon tries to fly at him.

The ash haired male manages to get to the top of one of the obsidian towers and takes out his katana. Masae and Mal have busied themselves trying to get to the other towers as Stephen keeps the dragon’s attention. Jake lifts his katana up and slashes it against the crystal, however; as an inexperienced Minecraft player, he did not know hitting the crystal would result in an explosion.

The force of the crystal shattering throws Jake back and nearly off the tower he is on. He mumbles to himself to use Lilim next time. He ignores the pain radiating from the back of his head as he gets up and makes his way to another tower.

Mal has gotten to the top of the shortest of the towers using her portals; she’s still floating in the air as she summons a bow and arrow. The woman goes up a little higher and shoots a portal at another tower. She fires an arrow below her and destroys the Ender Crystal. Mallory has also found a quick way to descend by pointing her toes down twice in quick succession. She succumbs to gravity and draws her bow back to fire an arrow.

Masae is flying just slightly above a tower and holding her Katamari above her head. She flies up a little higher before Cherry-bombing her Katamari straight down onto the crystal below her. Luckily, the dragon had decided to fly by that crystal just then to recover health when it blew up. This caused massive damage to the boss.

Stephen watches as the other three handle the towers, there’s only two left now. He takes in a deep breath as he lowers himself to the ground. The dragon has been flying at him non-stop and now he’s exhausted. He lifts the sword and barely manages to sidestep out of the way and attack the dragon’s head as it passes by. The last two crystals can be heard exploding in the distance. The real battle begins now.

Mal, Jake, and Masae rejoin Stephen now all the crystals are gone. Mal digs out her shovel as Jake brings out his katana. Masae takes a baseball pitcher stance as the dragon begins to fly towards all four of them. They all manage to sidestep out of the way and get one hit in. But Masae’s Katamari rebounded off the beast and slipped through her grip and hit a few Enderman as it bounced. Stephen turns around and starts defending the girl from them as Mal and Jake handle the dragon.

The Ender Dragon is nearly finished and has flown high up into the sky of the End. Jake starts ascending in the air as he prepares to attack the dragon. The Ender Dragon flies under Jake and he uses the quick method of falling to attack. Jake manages to get a direct hit on the dragon’s head. The dragon flies up as it starts to disintegrate. However, Jake didn’t know how to stop falling and crashes into the ground from his fall.

The other three of the team ignore the experience points falling like rain around them as they rush over to Jake’s unmoving body. The Author’s laugh echoes in the realm as Masae carefully rolls Jake over and rests him on her lap. His face is all scratched up and bleeding from landing on the End Stone, his glasses are also broken, glass piercing into his skin. They all take note that his breathing is sluggish and labored. Mal tries to summon a potion of healing but the command doesn’t work.

“You have completed your objective. All powers I have granted you. Are. Now. Gone.” The author’s voice articulates as Mal tries again.

Josh’s voice rings into Mal’s ear, “Jake? What’s going on? Is the dragon gone?”

“Josh… this is Mal…”

“Wh-wh-what?! Where’s Jake?!”

The brunette woman stares down at the bespectacled male, “He’s… in front of me… but really injured… and also unconscious…”

Josh goes silent after Mal explains what happened to his friend. There’s still about ten minutes left of the Dark Hour. Stephen recalls that Jake uses that weapon that looks like a gun on his hip to summon those ‘Personas’ and do things, like heal. But Stephen doesn’t remember the word he uses for it.

Mal takes the evoker from the holster and points it at Jake’s forehead; he doesn’t react when she pulls the trigger and Lilim appears from his subconscious.

Mal looks up at the girl waiting for commands, “I need you to heal him!”

Lilim floats above Jake calmly and doesn’t do as told. Personas understand English, but are finicky to listening to people that are not their hosts. Mal begins to panic when Lilim doesn’t respond to the command of healing her host. Masae gently grabs the attention of Lilim by tapping her foot.

“We are friends of your host,” Masae begins, “He is injured, he will die without your assistance. Please, help him.”

Lilim stares down at Jake’s unmoving body; his breathing looks even more pain filled now and is incredibly slow. His face is nearly covered in blood from the injuries around his eyes, as if he’s been crying blood. The demon girl looks at the other three, their faces full of looks of hope. She finally lifts her hands and a light engulfs Jake’s chest before she disappears into his subconscious again.

Masae begins crying when Jake’s breathing doesn’t improve and he’s still out cold. She worries that Jake is too injured to be healed.

“Mal, give me that thing.” Masae asks Mallory, pointing at the evoker in her grasp.

Mallory hands it over to the other woman, “What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to try and help Jake. That’s what.” She replies as she points the evoker at her temple.

Masae’s hand is quivering as she tries to pull the trigger. She doesn’t have the confidence to pull it with just one hand. She moves it to her forehead and presses again with both hands.

The bang of the evoker resounds throughout the End, but nothing appears from Masae’s subconscious, she cannot summon a Persona with the evoker method. Stephen tries as well, but with the same result, the same for Mallory as well.

All three are crying as nothing they try works. Jake is just going to die right here, heroically, but how do the others explain this to his fans? His PARENTS? They can’t just say he was fighting a dragon and fell from a considerable height. Masae sighs as she shifts a bit.

“Well… what now?” Masae asks quietly.

Stephen and Mallory look at each other and sigh. They grab each other’s hands as everything is silent. The three look at Jake though when a light illuminates from above his forehead, it takes the shape of a card bearing a symbol of a balance with a sword in the middle before shattering to pieces and the light disappears.

All three look at each other, Jake, and then his evoker. Mallory reaches over and picks it up and points the barrel at Jake’s temple. Her hand is trembling as she tries to squeeze the trigger. Stephen reaches over and helps steady his wife’s hand as they both pull back on the trigger. The evoker fires and the bang resounds around the team, causing everything to seem like it’s at a standstill.

The three look up as the Persona emerges. It looks like an angel, but her eyes are covered.

“I am thou, and thou art I.” The angel speaks as she extends her feathery white wings, with a slight echo behind her words, “I am Angel. You have forged the bond of the Justice Arcana.”

Masae looks at Angel with a look of hope. Stephen is speechless at the heavenly being above him. Mal takes the initiative and starts to speak to the angel.

“Angel,” Mal’s voice is full of confidence, “We need you to bring back our friend, your host, with your powers. He needs more than healing, he needs a miracle.”

The Persona of Justice nods as she crosses her arms against her chest before throwing them outward and engulfing herself and Jake in a flash of light. The Angel fades back into Jake’s subconscious after the light disperses from her magic.

Masae looks down at Jake’s body and sees that his breathing has improved, the scratches on his face are gone, and his glasses are repaired. He groans softly as he returns to consciousness. His grey eyes flutter open to see Stephen, Mal, and Masae leaning over him.

“Wha… what happened?” He asks quietly, his chest hurting making it difficult to speak.

Stephen feels the ground underneath him start to rumble a bit, “We don’t have time to explain here. We’ll tell you when we get out of here.”

Masae and Mal assist Stephen in lifting Jake onto his back to carry him out, the extra weight threw him off at first, but Stephen adjusted and the three start rushing toward the portal out of the End. Luckily it was low to the ground and Mal managed to place down a couple stair blocks so Stephen can just run up them. The team jumps into the portal and find themselves in the lobby of the Tower again. The earthquakes are getting more violent as time ticks down.

The other Let’s Players rush out as the building starts to crumble, pieces of the ceiling crashing down to the floor and nearly squishing everyone. Everyone manages to stumble outside just as the blood rain subsides and the clear night of Seattle returns. The sound of a distant clock tower finishes chiming midnight as the clock ticks to twelve ‘o’ one.

Stephen sets down Jake as everyone catches their breath from running out of the tower. A blond girl with glasses is standing in front of them, smirking, and waits for them to notice her presence.

Jon looks up at her, “Um… hi?”

“Hi yourself, ‘sup?” She asks.

Emile gets a quizzical look on his face, “How long have you been here?”

“The entire hour between twelve and twelve ‘o’ one.”

Jake suddenly becomes surprised at her, she’s obviously not the author girl, but she still knows of the Dark Hour. She may be of some assistance to the team if she can actively move during the hidden hour of the night. The girl pushes up her glasses as everyone stares at her in disbelief.

“The name’s Roxie. Call me Rox.” She says.

Everyone silently nods at Roxie. She looks physically strong, and very agile. She walks over to Jake and picks him up in a fireman’s carry. She asks where all of them are headed off to and starts marching towards the hotel with everyone else behind her.

When they all finally reach Jake’s room she plops him down on the bed and waits for everyone else to filter in. Rox is patiently waiting for someone to explain what’s been going on so she’s up to speed on everything.

Stephen starts off by explaining exactly what had happened with Jake during the last part of the battle with the Ender Dragon and how he had crashed face first into the stone and was on the verge of death. He also told him how they summoned Angel of the Justice Arcana to bring him back instead of Lilim healing him.

Jake nods in understanding after Stephen and Mal explain what happened with him. Jon begins to tell Roxie of what have been going on the past three nights at the convention center. Masae also adds in all of the crazy things the eight of them have had to go through just too last one night against the Author of Disaster.

Roxie sighs after she is told a simple description of the author girl. She doesn’t go into detail why she’s acting that way but Jake is able to assume the two know each other somehow. The blond girl does get up though and proceeds to leave. Everyone watches as she quietly walks out of the hotel door.

“I don’t know if I can trust this girl.” Jon says as he sits down on the bed and rewraps his injured leg, “I find it suspicious how she reacted to us mentioning what the author looked like.”

Jake speaks up, “Well, we can assume they know each other. But that’s all. Other than that we don’t have enough pieces to put together.”

Masae agrees as she brushes her hair a bit, “But if I’ve learned anything from tonight, I’m going to bring some tights to wear.”

Emile stares at her and tilts his head, “Why?”

“A certain man in this room, I’m not saying names, likes to look up my dress.”

All eyes glare daggers at Jake after Masae makes her proclamation. He slinks back a bit mumbling that it was an accident. Josh sighs and sends a message to someone before getting up to retire to his hotel room. Masae, Tim, Jon, and Emile follow him while Stephen goes to get dressed for bed.

Jake checks his phone messages before taking off his glasses and rubbing his face in irritation. Stephen and Mal retreat to their bed without even a passing glance at Jake.

“Goodnight to you too.” Jake says as he goes to the mini-fridge and pulls out an alcoholic drink, “This is going to be a long night…”


	9. Chapter 8: Rest for the weary?

_Chapter 8: Rest for the weary?_  
  
In the hotel room that the Runawayguys share together the three are having a discussion. They have quieted their voices to not wake up their neighbors.  
  
“I’m telling you Emile, we can’t trust that girl!” Jon says in a harsh whisper.  
  
The youngest shakes his head disobediently, “She didn’t even say if she knows the author! We have to trust her.”  
  
Tim is looking between his friends as they argue. Emile says it’s best to trust Roxie and let her fight with them because Jon is still injured. The oldest finally adds in that it’s up to Jake to determine if she tags along or not. The other two cease their argument after Tim stated what was on his mind.  
  
The three finally crawl into bed, or in Tim’s case the bathtub, to catch up on sleep before the sun decides to rise on them.  
  
The next morning everyone has gathered at a local restaurant to enjoy a simple breakfast together. Everyone is still tired out of their minds from last night and the others.  
  
Jake can barely hold his head up from both exhaustion and a mild hangover. Emile is also mildly tired from a horrid nightmare last night and is resting his head on Jon’s shoulder. Jon yawns lazily and lets the younger rest, for now. Masae and Tim look like they are the only ones that got a good night’s rest, and Josh is actually still asleep at the hotel.  
  
“So…” Jon starts before yawning loudly, “What are you going to do Jake?”  
  
Jake raises his head slightly and looks at Jon before letting out a small hiccup, “About what?”  
  
“Roxie.”  
  
Jake lowers his head again and closes his eyes, “I’m going to –hic- bring her along.”  
  
Just as soon as Jake’s hand begins to fail to support the weight of his head a familiar voice comes into hearing range.  
  
“Tired?”  
  
Everyone nods as Roxie pulls up a seat at the table everyone is sitting at. The waitress takes her order before she lazily stretches onto the table a bit.  
  
“I hate mornings.” She grumbles.  
  
Jon leans onto the table, making Emile clumsily fall sideways, and decides to ask Roxie some questions, particularly how she knows the author girl.  
  
Rox looks up at Jon and sits up properly before she decides to answer, “This ‘Author Girl’ you’re talking about is my friend.”  
  
Everyone is suddenly awake and alert after she speaks. Stephen and Mal glance at each other before looking at Roxie again.  
  
“You didn’t see us at the Thrown Controllers panel?”  
  
Emile, Jon, and Tim shake their heads. Surely they would remember this blond girl… right? She goes on to explain that the two of them arrived in Washington a day later than they expected to, that’s why they weren’t seen at the convention the first day. She also continued with that’s why the tower appeared on Saturday instead of Friday.  
  
“She’s normally pretty ok. She just goes a little… insane sometimes.” Rox says at the end about her friend, never once mentioning a name.  
  
Jake enters a thinking pose and tries to think straight for long enough on what caused the girl to act like this. She obviously must have lost it completely if anything she says becomes fact. She is also very familiar with each of the puzzles she has given them, especially for him, Emile, Tim, and Stephen.  
  
“If you’re done thinking, I need to add this in.” Roxie says as she pulls out a magenta mask from her purse. Followed by masks that are pink, blue, and yellow, “I found these in her bag. Do they look like they mean something?  
  
Jake grabs the pile of masks and brings them closer and inspects them.  
  
“These are masks of the Arcana from Persona.” He says as he holds up the magenta one, “This one is Priestess. Then there’s Empress, Hierophant, and Wheel of Fortune. Why would she have these?”  
  
Roxie shrugs, “I’m her friend, not her keeper. Sometimes.”  
  
“I have a feeling we’ll be facing ourselves soon.” Jake mumbles as he looks on the inside of the Hierophant mask to a faint glow around Tim, “Because I think this mask was meant for Tim but she changed it last minute to something else.”  
  
Stephen looks at him, “What do you mean?”  
  
“These are masks that represent the dark side of the first twelve Arcana after the Fool. But, there are some missing. I can only assume she is using those that are not here to craft Shadows of our true selves.”  
  
“But, there wouldn’t be enough. Right?” Mal states hesitantly.  
  
“Not unless she keeps to her word of you and Stephen counting for one person. Then she would have two masks for one of the Arcana that is missing.”  
  
Everyone looks at each other worriedly before calming down slightly when their food arrives. Everyone tries to take it easy before the night falls. They cannot hesitate any more with going through the tower. Jake deduces that since Stephen’s area was the one they just completed, they may have to complete an area designed just for Mallory. If not, Jake doesn’t know who’s next.  
  
Night falls quickly and Midnight comes just as fast. Everyone is still standing outside the convention center waiting for the clock to tick down. Everyone is finally battle ready, even Jon. Josh counts the seconds until the clock tower in the distance starts to chime that it is midnight.  
  
The earthquakes begin again as everyone repositions their feet to keep steady. The tower emerges from its secret hiding place and stands tall before the heroes. The outfits of the group change into their attire for battle, with Roxie dressed as a ninja. The doors creek open as the nine enter the tower yet again.  
  
The Author Girl is nowhere to be seen, but her voice echoes through the hall, “I see you finally employed my friend. That makes the challenge even more fun~! Good luck~.”  
  
“Is it me… or does she sound even more psychotic today?” Josh asks as he looks at his teammates.  
  
Jake inspects the floor and sees a faintly illuminated symbol on the floor. He is unfamiliar with what it is.  
  
“That’s the Aperture Science Logo.” Mallory states as she looks closely at the symbol, “I think we’re going to have to do puzzles from Portal 2.”  
  
Jake nods in confirmation. He carefully contemplates who to bring. Emile knows hardly anything of Portal, both Stephen and Mal know it well, Josh knows it, Jon has played it, can’t tell with Roxie, and he’s pretty sure Tim is unfamiliar with it.  
  
Jake finally makes up his mind, “Mallory, I want you to stay here tonight. I will bring Jon, Josh, and Stephen tonight.”  
  
Stephen sputters in confusion, “Why just me and not her?”  
  
“I know both of you know Portal very well, but I need one person to stay here and update us. The only two that can do that are Josh and Mal. And I need Josh to help with puzzles.”  
  
“Problem,” Mallory interjects, “I’m the only one with a Portal Gun.”  
  
Jake enters a thinking pose. He tells Josh to stay, Stephen and Mal will both go, and then he’ll bring Roxie to help out. Everyone comes to an agreement and they slowly tread up the stairs to the gate to the next layer of Tartarus.  
  
The group of five lands on the cold, hard floor of the Aperture Laboratory. Jake rubs his head slowly as he stands up. The others slowly get up. Roxie adjusts her scarf and dusts off. Jon looks at his weapon and sees that it has a new setting on it.  
  
Jake feels the surge of the Arcana that runs through his veins subside as well. He looks at his evoker and sees that it has a blue and yellow symbol on it. He takes aim at a nearby wall and a blue portal opens. He places another on the ceiling.  
  
“I think my evoker and Jon’s gun have been modified to shoot portals, and portals only.” Jake says.  
  
Jon shoots two portals at the wall in front of him and a cyan and blue portal opens up, “They seem to be color coded too.”  
  
Stephen grins like a dork before speaking, “Then Mal’s will be red and orange.”  
  
Mallory tests this theory by shooting off her two portals, and they were red and orange. Everyone nods now that they know which portal belongs to which person.  
  
They all enter the elevators in the next room and go up to the next chamber. The tests officially start now. The room is large with a giant gap separating the two halve of the room. Near the door is two switches meant for two cubes. Only tiny pieces of the wall can be used to place portals. One cube is also behind a wall of lasers that has to be deactivated by a timed button. The other is by the door behind another wall of lasers that is deactivated when the first cube is placed. There is a Launchpad by Jon’s feet that leads to one of the portalable walls.  
  
Jon aims his gun and shoots a cyan portal at the other end of the room and tries moving to find another wall but gets launched to the other end of the room.  
  
“Whoops.” Stephen says as he runs a hand through his hair.  
  
Roxie rolls her eyes and tells Jake where to shoot the portals so she can fetch Jon. She accomplishes this task and Jon properly places his second portal. Mallory places hers so she can get over to the button. She tests it to see how long the effect lasts, which is not very long, and reports this back to Jake.  
  
The ash-haired male thinks for a second about who should be flung to get the cube. Roxie has been using the evoker to shoot two more portals behind the cube and near the ceiling of the room above the Launchpad. She hands back the evoker and stands behind the Launchpad.  
  
“Alright Mallory,” The blond haired girl says confidently, “get ready to press the button.”  
  
Jake doesn’t have time to react as Rox steps onto the Launchpad and gets flung to the other side of the room. Just as she starts to fly across the room perpendicularly to the Launchpad Mallory hits the button. The bespectacled girl grabs the cube and starts to fly towards the side of the room with the door again. Jon reacted quickly and moved his portal out of the way so Rox can land.  
  
Stephen, Mal, Jon, and Jake each take turns to get launched to the other side after Roxie places down the other cube to open the door.  
  
The pattern of having to do extremely hard puzzles continues for four more rooms. The brain power of the five combined is starting to drive them slightly insane as they have to work quickly and efficiently to get the puzzles done, and get out alive.  
  
The five have finally reached the final room.  The puzzle is very challenging, requiring not only Stephen and Mallory’s planning, but also Jake’s leadership, Jon’s quick thinking, and Roxie’s ninja skills. They each have to grab a single cube and reach the top of the room on the other side. But judging by how the rooms behind them began to fall away when they started to run out of time, they can’t dawdle and waste time.  
  
Stephen and Mal both begin with the path on the left to retrieve their cubes. Jake heads off to the right, Jon enters the room that is left of the door they entered, and Roxie starts to find a way to the path on the right just a bit above where Jake entered.  
  
Stephen and Mal both have to dispatch turrets to get to their cube. Stephen grasps Mallory’s shovel tightly and takes a deep breath.  
  
“Mal, you know how much I love you right?” Stephen asks.  
  
“Of course.” Mal replies, slightly worried to what her husband is getting at.  
  
“Good. Just remember that if one of us doesn’t make it out of this room.”  
  
And before Mallory has a chance to react to the tiny speech, Stephen dashes out from behind the wall and attacks the turrets. Mal panics when she hears the bullets get fired out of the turrets and Stephen yells in pain. The shooting and explosions subsides and Mal cautiously turns around the pillar and sees all the turrets malfunctioning and Stephen bleeding on the ground holding his side.  
  
“Stephen!” Mallory yells as she scrambles to him, “No. No. No. No…”  
  
Stephen looks up at Mal in pain and holds her face, he forces out a smile, “Did I do good?”  
  
Mal doesn’t know what to respond with, “Y-yes… you did good.”  
  
Stephen is crying a little bit as he continues to feel the blood run out of the wounds he sustained, and at the pain he knows Mallory feels right now emotionally, “Let’s meet back… again tomorrow… shall we?”  
  
Mallory wanted to scream in agony as Stephen’s hands tremble against her blood-stained face, but she only sighed, “Let’s meet back again tomorrow…”  
  
Mal glances over and sees Jake run into the room, worried. She pays him no mind though as Stephen has become too weak to continue holding his wife’s face on his own. The brunette woman tenderly holds her husband’s hands in her own.  
  
“I… I’m so sorry Mal…” Jake mumbles as she leans down and kisses her husband before his eyes slip closed.  
  
“It’s… it’s fine Jake…” Mallory mumbles as she looks at Jake, “I’m ready to face anything now. For Stephen’s sake.”  
  
Jake was about to say something to her but a light emerges from both Stephen and Mallory.  It is a single card with the design of the Lovers Arcana etched on it. Mallory reaches up and crushes the card in her hand. From that emerges a being from her inner psyche. A woman dressed in clothes from Ancient Egypt, with the head of a cat, and an Ankh in her left hand.  
  
“I am thou, and thou art I. I am Bastet and you have formed the bond of the Lovers Arcana.”  
  
Mal and Jake both stare at the persona in awe. Mal’s emotions and caring demeanor for Stephen have manifested themselves into a persona. A persona formed and shared by the true love between Stephen and Mal.  
  
“Diarama.” Is the only thing Mallory says to her persona, she accompanies it with pointing to her husband.  
  
Bastet raises her Ankh and engulfs Stephen’s body in a peaceful light. His eyes flutter open as the Egyptian goddess fades slowly away. The blood has stopped and his body is healed of its wounds. Jake walks over and helps the other man to his feet.  
  
Stephen smiles and hugs Mallory tightly, “I always believed in you Mal!”  
  
Mallory hugs him back, “I believed in you too.”  
  
Jake smiles at the happy couple and dispatches the turrets on the other side of the room before going and picking up one of the two cubes. Mallory rushes over and grabs the other. The three proceed to walk out of that room and see Jon with his cube and Roxie with hers. Everyone places the cubes at the bottom of the chamber and begin their climb to the top of the testing room.  
  
  
All of them reach the exit and see the author standing at the door. She has an evil smirk etched onto her face as the five climb the stairs to the door, she is dressed as Chel from the original Portal to boot. She slowly claps for them as they approach.  
  
“Bravo. Bravo.” She taunts, “You should compete in the Portal Olympics!”  
  
“Enough with the games already Author!” Jon snaps as he switches the setting of his gun and starts to shoot at her.  
  
The girl hops out of the way and starts to float after she lands on her giant pen, “You naughty, naughty boy. Didn’t mama teach you not to hit a girl?”  
  
“Leave my mom out of this!”  
  
She smirks as she finds the buttons to push on Jon’s anger. She keeps taunting him, slowly breaking him down. She gasps though and nearly dodges out of the way after Roxie shoots a ninja knife at her.  
  
“I forgot you brought her along with you. This ain’t over yet boys! You still need to get through the next area tonight if you have any hopes of finishing this tower.”  
  
The girl disappears again after her proclamation. The floor beneath the group begins to shake and crumble away. Roxie starts pushing everyone into the next room and into the access point back down to the lobby. Everyone watches in awe as the symbol of Aperture Science fades away and relocates to the eastern-most side of the room.


	10. Chapter 9: Dimensional Flips

_Chapter 9: Dimensional Flips_  
  
In the center of the room a new symbol faintly illuminates. It vaguely resembles the warning label for dangerous chemicals in science labs and hospitals. From the bottom square there are three black arrows that point in the top three squares. Josh kneels down to get a better look.  
  
“That’s the symbol of Quantum Conundrum.” The youngest male says as he stands up, “That means you have to leave Mallory here and I go.”  
  
Jake nods in response, “I was going to leave Stephen anyway. He’s injured and needs to recover. Also, Jon stay here, I’m taking Emile with me.”  
  
Stephen sits down on the floor as Mallory is instructed on what she should do when Josh calls out for help in the new area of Tartarus, The Quadwrangle Manor. Jon high fives Emile as the younger runs up to Jake.  
  
Mallory speaks up as the new group of four ascends the stairs, “You have thirty minutes.”  
  
Josh smirks and hold up his IDS Gloved hand, “We have more time than that. I found a way to modify this so I can slow down time everywhere in the tower, including here.”  
  
Mallory nods as the four enter the doors and disappear. Jake feels a surge of energy enter his system, it feels reminiscent of the Priestess Arcana as he feels a sudden chill run down his spine. The climb up the stairs also causes an uneasy vibe to surge through the heroes.  
  
The quartet falls onto a hardwood floor of a mansion. Everything is eerily calm as everyone stands up and dusts off a bit. Josh hits something on his glove and everything turns white and fluffy. Jake stares at his surroundings in awe and wonder.  
  
“That happened?” Jake mentions.  
  
Josh is off to the side, mumbling something to Roxie, “Hey Jake! THINK FAST!”  
  
Jake turns and yells in surprise as Roxie uppercuts him in the chin and sends him flying into the ceiling. The impact causes no damage and he lands safely on the floor again.  
  
“Ok, the uppercut hurt a bit, but everything else felt like a pillow. A really, really soft pillow.”  
  
Josh flips the switch on his glove again and changes dimensions, “That Jake, was the fluffy dimension. Everything is ten times lighter, and pretty much a pillow. Even you guys!”  
  
Mallory decides to chime in, “Are you done with your shenanigans? Time’s ticking.”  
  
Everyone nods and starts to run off into the next room. There is a large gap with a yellow substance flooding the ground below them. Josh sees the answer quite quickly. He switches the dimension to fluffy and sets a safe on some sort of floating pad and gets on top of it.  
  
“What’s the safe for Josh? Aren’t you ten times lighter in this dimension?” Emile asks and he playfully paws the safe.  
  
“Nope, I remain the same in dimensional shifts.” Josh says as he switches the dimension to the heavy dimension, making the safe extremely weighty, “That’s why I need the safe. You guys don’t.”  
  
Jake nods and tries to walk but finds it difficult, he can’t even open his mouth to speak.  
  
Josh chuckles, “You’re ten times heavier than normal Jake. Your body isn’t used to the energy you need to move when that heavy.”  
  
Josh then flips the dimension to fluffy and gets launched to the other side of the room. He slows down time and dismounts his safe safely. He switches the dimensions to normal and hears a loud thud and someone groaning behind him. Emile is lying upside down on the floor with his legs being held up by the wall.  
  
“Whoops, sorry Emile. Didn’t realize you were on the thing with me.”  
  
“It’s all good…” Emile grumbles.  
  
Roxie facepalms as she walks over to the pad with Jake slung over her shoulder. She commands Josh to switch dimensions so they can get over to the other side. He does as told and watches as the ninja girl lands a bit clumsily on the platform and sets the other down.  
  
Jake regains his footing and dusts off his jacket, “Is everything this complicated?”  
  
Josh nervously laughs, “It gets worse.”  
  
Emile groans as he stands up and stretches his back, wincing as he hears from popping, however; no one has time to worry about it as time ticks down. Josh slows down time and uses it as a trick to get everyone to other places a slight bit faster since, to them, he moves very fast.  
  
Despite to pressing matter of time, the quartet is aptly able to complete the puzzles as they come up. The gaps in the floor get smaller, and the matter of having to catapult to the other side of the room becomes null and void the higher up the four go in the mansion. The puzzles, however; are only getting more and more tedious at the group ascends higher.  
  
They finally manage to reach the top part of the mansion. Not a peep has been heard from the batty author since she disappeared in Aperture Labs, but that only means she’s planning something. The feeling of impending doom weighs heavily upon Jake’s shoulders as they continue their journey.  
  
The group reaches a sensible room filled with only a few chairs, bookcases, and tables. They take a quick breather, but the peace doesn’t last as the author comes onto the intercom.  
  
“Well, well, WELL!” She says, as if she’s disappointed, “I was hoping Josh would have drowned, or Emile be squished like a bug.”  
  
Josh is finally reaching his boiling point, “I’m getting tired of these games! What’s the point of all this?”  
  
The author giggles, “Is it required I answer?”  
  
Emile barks angrily as he starts climbing the wall to get up to the intercom, “You’ll answer us this instant!”  
  
“Oh no, I’m so afraid.” She taunts, “You’re so scary Emile… Not really. But, if you must know, this is fun and games for me.”  
  
Roxie rolls her eyes in the background. The author giggles once again and appears in front of Emile. She is dressed like Josh, but wearing a khaki skirt instead of pants. The half-wolf gets scared and loses his grip on the wall and falls down. He’s safely caught by Roxie who glares up at her crazy friend.  
  
“Well, no matter what your true reason is for this, I’m here helping these guys because it’s RIGHT! This isn’t fun, these aren’t games!” Josh rants, “Our lives are at stake! We’re doing this because we HAVE to! And defeating you is the right thing to do!”  
  
The author gets a curious look in her eyes as a glow begins emanating from Josh’s body. The young adult narrows his eyes as a card bearing the symbol of a balance with a sword in the middle of it appears in front of him. A glint of determination is present in Josh’s hazel eyes as he realizes what this means. He has the ability to use a Persona.  
  
“This… this is impossible!” The author says as she gets off her pen, “You’re not supposed to have a Persona!”  
  
“Think again!” Josh says as he crushes the card in his hand, “I am thou and thou art I! I call upon Perseus of the JUSTICE ARCANA!”  
  
And with the proclamation, a figure emerges from Josh’s subconscious. It is the brave hero that slayed Medusa in Greek Mythology. His eyes are blindfolded to represent a true figure of Justice. Jake sees the opportunity and calls upon his own Persona to aid in battle.  
  
“HIGH PIXIE!” Jake shouts as he presses the trigger of his evoker, “Tarukaja! Now!”  
  
Just as Josh commands Perseus to attack the author he feels a surge of a powerful energy pulse through his veins. It’s a power that fills him with strength both physically and mentally. The attack from Perseus is narrowly avoided as the brunette girl dodges out of the way. She also barely avoids a knife from Roxie.  
  
“This isn’t over, it’s only the beginning!” The author says as she disappears into the darkness again, “Expect me to actively try and kill you now.”  
  
Perseus also disappears into Josh’s psyche as the voice of the girl fades. But the moment of triumph is cut short when the building starts to rumble. Everyone looks at each other worried as the floor creaks and cracks. The floor falls away along with the four heroes as the Dark Hour is nearing its close for the evening.  
  
Mallory’s voice echoes into Josh’s and Jake’s ears, “Guys, the Dark Hour is ending in five minutes! Where are you!?”  
  
Josh manages to answer once Emile stops screaming, “Falling! Is there an access point below us at all?!”  
  
Mallory only responds with bad news, “There is, but you’ll die from the impact!”  
  
Jake curses under his breath, “What about above us?”  
  
“Um… one. But how are you going to get there in under four minutes!?”  
  
“Josh! Switch dimensions!”  
  
“What!? Switching gravity will still kill you three!”  
  
“I. Don’t. CARE!”  
  
Josh begins to fiddle with his IDS glove frantically as the group continues to fall quickly. He hits the button to switch gravity but everything switches between the other three dimensions and stops on heavy. Josh watches in horror as his companions begin falling faster due to the increased gravity. The young adult panics and hits another button and watches everyone fall up with reversed gravity.  
  
Everyone hears the author giggle maniacally, “Let’s make this more fun! Because what’s a safe without spikes!?”  
  
Jake looks down as gasps in surprise as a safe has appeared below him, the entire top of it covered in dangerously sharp spikes.  
  
“That looks the opposite of safe!” Emile shouts as he narrowly dodges a flying chair.  
  
“Now’s not the time for puns!” Roxie shouts as she tries swimming in the air to Jake, “Jepson! Flip the switch and reverse gravity again!”  
  
Josh smacks the glove and watches everything turn to the normal dimension. The other three begin to fall down again, along with the furniture the Author has been tossing at them. Roxie manages to move the safe out from under Jake with a well-placed kick. Jake sighs in relief from not having to worry about being turning into Swiss cheese.  
  
“Two minutes guys!” Mallory shouts, “Think of something quick before you’re all dead!”  
  
Josh sees the floor below him and the access point. He doesn’t know if he should risk trying to hit the switch and attempt to activate the fluffy dimension, or take his chances with landing in the dimension he’s in. Josh decides to chance it and hits the button on his glove one last time.  
  
The dimensions are going haywire as the glove’s functions are starting to cease to exist. The hall is rapidly switching between the five dimensions, adversely affecting Jake, Emile, and Roxie as they do. Josh manages to hit the floor safely while the dimension was temporarily set to fluffy but worries as the other three might not have the same luck as him.  
  
Roxie manages to land straight in the access point and is sent back to the lobby safely with a graceful tumble to cushion her fall. Jake panics as he doesn’t have enough time to summon High Pixie to carry him down to the floor. He closes his eyes as the floor draws closer. He manages to land without harm while the fluffy dimension was active. Emile, however; didn’t have as much luck. He landed directly on the metal floor in the normal dimension.  
  
Josh and Jake both panic when the only noise that comes from Emile is a whimper of pain like that of a dog. They both pick him up with his arms around their shoulders and rush out before everything else collapses on top of them. They rejoin their friends in the lobby and all escape the tower.  
  
The sky fades to blue as the Dark Hour finally ends. Jake and Josh slowly set Emile down on the pavement and watch in horror as the stripes of the Okami don’t fade from his figure. Everyone huddles down around his unconscious figure. Masae finds herself crying a bit as she takes his hand.  
  
“He’s cold… he’s never cold…” She mumbles as she notices his fingers are like ice, and that he’s shivering a bit.  
  
Stephen sadly scratches the back of his neck and messes with his hair, “What do we do now? Any powers of healing we have are gone.”  
  
Jon and Tim exchange worried glances as they contemplate what to do about their friend. Jon feels tears welling up at the sides of his eyes but tries to push them back.  
  
Roxie looks at Emile’s figure carefully. All of his stripes are still marking his body and faintly glowing red, like a pulse. The outfit Emile wears during the Dark Hour has disappeared, as well as his reflector. The wolf ears and tail are still present, however; they are black like his natural hair color.  
  
“I think he’s in a state of Limbo between existing in the Dark Hour and real time.” Roxie says as she looks at everyone, “He should be alright; he just won’t wake up until we enter the tower again.”  
  
Everyone looks at the blond girl and hope what she’s saying is true. Jake and Roxie both stand up at the same time and lift the half-wolf onto their shoulders to carry him back to the hotel. Everyone else follows them quietly as they walk.  
  
After they return to the hotel room the group disperses to their respective rooms to attempt to sleep. But most of them are so distressed at Emile’s state of consciousness that they find themselves tossing and turning with worry. Sleep was invited but never came.  
  
It’s about three in the morning and Jon still hasn’t even slept five minutes. He sits up and places his glasses on his face. He looks over at his unconscious companion and sighs. He gets out of bed and kneels at the side of the other bed. His half-lidded eyes lazily trace the garnet marking on Emile’s shoulder. The marking is faintly illuminating the skin around it.  
  
“I’m so sorry Emile…” Jon mumbles, “I wish I knew this was going to happen… I could have saved you… I’m the worst brother ever…”  
  
Jon reaches out a bit and softly grabs Emile’s hand in a caring, brotherly way. Jon closes his eyes as he lets his mind wander as he tries to figure out a way to tell if Emile is truly going to be fine.  
  
A soft voice rings in Jon’s ears after he opens his eyes again, “Your present circumstances don’t determine where you can go; they merely determine where you start.”  
  
Jon swiftly stands up and looks around, “Who’s there?”  
  
The Canadian adult calms down slightly when he receives no response. He sits down on his bed and continues to watch Emile quietly breathe. The older sighs again as he lies down again to finally let the spell of sleep overcome him.


	11. Chapter 10: Katamari Anyone?

Chapter 10: Katamari anyone?

The next morning arrives but is completely ignored as everyone slept until around one o’clock. After everyone, save for the injured Emile, is awake they all gather in the TRG’s room to discuss the plan for the coming evening. No one noticed if a new symbol appeared after the Quadrangle Manor’s changed positions. Everyone takes turns guessing what the next challenge will be and finally conclude that Masae’s area will be the next challenge.

After the discussion Jake looks at the very stoic Roxie, “I have a question.”

“Go on.” The blond responds, pushing up her glasses.

“What’s going to happen once we defeat the Author?”

“I’m not quite sure myself, considering I didn’t even know this was going on until night before last.”

“She does have a point.” Stephen interjects.

“Well, that’s the least of our concerns at the moment.” Masae says, “Right now, we should be concerned at what she’s going to throw at us tonight.”

Josh nods and adds his own statement, “Right, especially since now she actually wants to murder our faces.”

Jake sighs unceremoniously at Josh’s statement, “Well, regardless of that we still need to finish this tower.”

Everyone nods in agreement with Jake before quietly looking at Emile. He has not even twitched since last night, and the markings on his face and shoulders continue to pulse their faint burgundy glow. Masae, Jon, and Tim have been keeping a watchful eye on him to make sure he does not get any worse.

“We can only hope that he wakes up tonight during the transition.” Masae quietly as she strokes one of his wolf-ears, “This may be our last chance to get anything major accomplished.”

Jon nods and adds his own comment, “I think if we work really quickly we’ll be able to finish both my area and Masae’s tonight before the night ends.”

Everyone agrees and start preparing for the evening before it comes upon them. Jake began practicing swinging his katana, Jon practiced his run-and-gun strategy, Stephen and Mal practiced using their weapons, the same applied for Tim, and Josh sat and watched.

Midnight fell quickly on the heroes. They are waiting outside the convention center again as the rain of Seattle falls upon their heads. They hear the distant clock tower begin to chime. The sky obtains its eerie green-yellow glow, the rain water begins to turn into blood, any and all bystanders outside are encased in coffins, and the familiar earthquakes begin as Tartarus forms itself. The layers stretch high into the sky, but the tower looks heavily damaged from all the times it has formed, been destroyed, and reformed.

After the tower fully forms itself the group watches as Emile’s hair slowly loses its familiar raven colored hue and fades to a snow white. The markings glow radiantly and more vividly. The familiar outfit he wears also forms around his figure as the Dark Hour emerges from its hiding place in the night. The young adult’s chocolate brown eyes slowly open as he returns to consciousness. When he finds himself able to focus clearly he smiles and his eyes fade quickly to green as he looks at his friends.

“I’m not dead right?” The wolf-boy whispers as he slowly sits up.

Jon tries to contain his excitement as he collapses onto his knees and hugs Emile tightly, “You’re not dying on my watch Chugga.”

“You sure have been in a hugging mood this past week Jon. But good to know I’m still in fighting condition.” Emile replies as he hugs Jon back.

Roxie decides to interrupt the moment by clearing her throat. Everyone gets the message and start to run into the building, not being concerned with the fact that they are drenched by the blood rain. The group waits for a few seconds once inside to check if the Author is going to taunt them, but there is no sign of her.

Masae checks the floor at the center of the room and confirms their suspicions of Katamari being the next challenge as she sees the shape of the mysterious ball lightly illuminated in front of her. She turns around and stares at Jake who is contemplating the people to take with him this evening, because he has to account for both Katamari and Gunstar Heroes tonight.

Jake is mumbling to himself as he thinks, “It’s obvious I have to take Masae… but who else knows the game? Emile, I know, but he’s not in any condition to fight…”

Stephen walks up to Jake and explains that he knows the series very well. Jake agrees to take both him and Mallory, as well as Jon.

“Alright guys, let’s move out. Jon you’re coming too. Josh, you’re on communication duty tonight. Tim, look after Emile please.”

“What about me?” Roxie asks, “I’ve found a way for all of us to communicate with each other to make it easier to relay messages.”

“You have to stay here since I don’t know how much you know about Katamari, besides I have to take Jon because we have to tackle his area as well TONIGHT.”

Roxie huffs as the team, for now, walks up the stairs. Jake feels energy pulse through his veins, much like that of the Emperor Arcana, as he pushes his way through the doors. The team of five finds themselves standing in the middle of a road, the road is incredibly empty and very eerie.

“I think we’re in the Author’s twisted version of Tokyo.” Masae says as she looks at the signs on the building.

Jake walks over to where the raven-haired girl is standing and reads the sign. Jake visibly stiffens as he traces his finger over the symbols.

“What’s it say Jake?” Jon asks as he looks at his shaking friend.

“The words are a little messed up, but they vaguely spell ‘death’, ‘blood’, and ‘destruction’.”

Stephen cringes as Jake reads the words. But everything is interrupted as the Author giggles loudly. Everyone huddles up back-to-back to cover all sides as they search their surrounding for the insane girl.

“Good evening friends~.” The Author says as she appears, towering above the buildings of the town.

Everyone looks at her and become worried as they see she is wearing the outfit of the Queen of All Cosmos, except all black and dark gray.

Stephen becomes increasingly worried as the girl smiles mischievously at the group. A glint of wickedly hazardous playfulness shines bright in the girl’s eyes.

“I’m attending a funeral tonight.” The Author says as she dusts off her dress.

“Oh, I’m so sorry… W-who died?” Jake asks hesitantly, fear rising in his voice.

The girl cackles maniacally, “YOU!” She shouts murderously.

“Run?” Stephen asks as the Author conjures up a fairly large Katamari.

“Run.” Jake responds.

Everyone begins to fun frantically away through the empty streets of Tokyo as the Author uses the Katamari as an oversized bowling ball, with the heroes as her pins.

“And your mom’s attending!” Roxie shouts jokingly through the communication system about the Author attending a funeral on this night. Jon immediately responds back.

“No, she’s not! She has nothing to do with this, don’t bring her back into it! You’ll start the Author up again, DON’T DO IT!”

“Less talking! More running!” Jake yells as he rounds a corner onto a side street.

The group of five takes the couple seconds they have to rest as they hear the heavy footsteps of the Author tread closer. All of them are worried because they have no idea how to take on the Author in her current form. Jon watches as the shadow of the crazy girl treads closer and closer. Mal and Jake are both trying to think of a solution.

Masae is also thinking but she slams her fist onto her other palm as a light bulb comes on in her head. She kneels down and starts rolling small items onto her Katamari, slowly increasing its size. The raven-haired girl looks behind her shoulder and asks everyone to start tossing things of various sizes at the ball.

It doesn’t take long for the Author to find the group, however; they have stepped onto the street, the Katamari next to Masae.

“You hope to defeat me with a Katamari that is barely five feet tall? Pitiful.” The Author laughs.

Mal comes with a clever comeback, “You seem to forget I have the power of wind.”

With the clever remark out, Mal summons her tarot card to summon Bastet.

The Author of Disaster cackles as she reaches down quickly, “I’ll be taking that!” She says as she steals Mallory’s tarot card.

Everyone is shocked as the aura of the Lovers Arcana fades from around Mal. They watch as the Author rips the tiny card between her teeth.

“She just stole the Power of Love! What the hell!?” Jake yells.

“What. A. Dick.” Jon says as he pushes up his glasses

“THAT’S IT!” Stephen yells angrily at the top of his lungs, a tarot card bearing the same symbol as Mal’s appearing in front of him, “No one! Messes! With! MY WIFE!”

The author obtains a look of concerned surprise as Stephen takes his fist and punches the tarot card into pieces. The shards fading away into the night sky, and the familiar aura of the Persona engulfs Stephen in its cerulean glow as Bastet emerges from the male’s inner psyche.

“The Arcana is the means by which all is revealed… There is both joy and wonder in coming to understand another…” The Author mumbles as she takes this situation into consideration as she watches Stephen carefully.

“You bet there is!” Stephen shouts as he raises his arm to command his Persona, “Bastet! Garula!”

As soon as the command resonates through the air of the night a colossal gust of wind begins to blow from around Stephen. The force of the wind allows the group of five to use all their strength to push the Katamari straight into the Author’s abdomen. The blow knocks her backwards a little from the impact of a Katamari filled to the brim of whatever the heroes threw onto it.

Jake decides to follow up the attack with a well timed Zionga from his own Persona Oberon of the Emperor Arcana. The Author becomes incapacitated and shrinks down to a normal human size. Everyone watches carefully as the Author falls to the ground while Masae’s Katamari rolls back to her, safe, sound and back to normal.

The Author manages to stand up again as she glares at the five heroes, “Congratulations to Stephen for obtaining his persona, it seems that he’s more offensive than his wife, and apparently the Power of Love is stronger than I had anticipated.” The Author says as she recovers from the attacks, “But the night is still young; Jon has some work to do, and Seven Force is quite the formidable foe. I would wish you luck, but I’m evil. So I won’t do that.”

“Quit stalling already!” Jon yells as he runs up to the girl.

The older Canadian jumps into the air and hopes to land a kick on the girl as he comes down, but she manages to step out of the way on time and toss a fairly decently sized Katamari back at him, hitting him square in the jaw and sending him flying a couple feet away.

“My story, my rules.” She says bitterly as she summons her pen and hops onto it.

“If that’s the case, why aren’t we all dead!?” Jake yells as he pulls out his katana, “You said anything you say becomes truth!”

“You obviously don’t write stories Superjeenius. I can’t just say ‘and they were all dead’! That wouldn’t make a good story! I need to make this plot juicy, and that requires bloodshed my friend.”

Everyone’s anger is reaching a boiling point as they bring out their weapons to fight the girl.

“I wouldn’t waste your precious time fighting me. Besides, I’d just do something to make you all kill each other if you did. Too-da-loo!”

Everyone watches as the girl disappears in smoke and opens up the way to Jon’s area. The group begins to rush into it and sees the tunnel leading to the final fight. But the way down is not exactly safe. The author is tossing all sorts of objects at them to slow them down, and injure them. Jon and Jake manage to keep most of the flying debris at bay with their respective weapons, Stephen hitting away the rest that he can as well with Mal’s shovel.

Jon can see the mine cart waiting for them at the bottom of the tower as they fall to it; the impact will surely hurt, just like the Author wants it to. Jake and Jon hope for the best as they near the final boss fight.


End file.
